


Courage of the Heart

by Roxiepluto



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Football, M/M, Slow Burn, The digimon are actually there and not sidelined
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-20 11:04:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11919573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roxiepluto/pseuds/Roxiepluto
Summary: Daisuke has been in love with Ken for a long time and his heart breaks the day Ken and Miyako get together. Tai knows something is wrong but the truth isn't what he expected.With emotions on high, the two bearers of courage find their relationship shaken to the core. Can they find the courage to understand what their hearts are trying to tell them?





	1. Heartbreak

Daisuke’s ears twigged as he heard his phone ringing from his bedside table but he didn’t look away from the screen as he pushed a few buttons on the controller to execute his final blow. The ninja character he was playing vanished from the screen and reappeared right in front of the heavily muscled character he was fighting, delivering an uppercut to his chin and knocking out the rest of his health points.

“Wahh! No fair Daisuke! I was winning that time,” said Chibimon, his cheeks puffing up in anger as he allowed himself to fall onto his back in a childish sulk.

Daisuke grinned down unapologetically at his partner and pushed himself up onto his knees so he was off the carpet. He quickly jumped up and ran a few steps to grab his phone. He gave a grin when he saw that it was Ken, the warm feeling that was always associated with Ken flooding through him, all the way to the tips of his fingers. He quickly answered it and placed it against his ear but Ken’s voice came through before he could even say ‘Hello’.

“Daisuke! She said yes! Can you believe it?” his voice exclaimed, the happiness evident from his tone.

Daisuke felt himself frown slightly, feeling suddenly totally lost in this conversation. What was Ken talking about? He hadn’t forgotten something important had he? No, there was no way his brain would forget anything about Ken. He knew that Ken liked his desk to be organised in a certain way and if anything was out of place, he couldn’t concentrate until it was fixed. He knew that he liked his tea with exactly 2 teaspoons of sugar and a dash of milk but he liked his coffee black. He knew that Ken’s blue eyes were a bright sky blue when he was happy and a darker stormy blue when he was sad.

He felt his heart beat faster and snapped himself out of his reverie as he asked “Who said yes? And what are you even talking about?” His tone was light and he even chuckled at the end, wondering what had flustered his friend so much.

“Right, sorry,” apologised Ken and Daisuke smiled fondly into the phone and sat on the edge of his bed, giving Ken a moment to organise his thoughts. “Miyako said yes when I asked her earlier today if she would be my girlfriend.”

Daisuke couldn’t stop the strangled noise that his throat made at the sudden revelation. It felt like he’d suddenly been thrown in ice cold water without the slightest bit of warning.

“I’m sorry I never told you that I was going to do it but I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” he replied, taking Daisuke’s noise for confusion, “I’ve actually had a crush on her for a while now.”

“You never told me you liked her,” he replied quietly, his mouth reacting before the rest of him could process what was going on, as was always the case. He wished his tone didn’t seem so broken though.

“I’m really sorry Daisuke,” apologised Ken again, sounding slightly more desperate, likely from hearing Daisuke’s tone of voice. “I was going to tell you, honest, but saying it out loud made it more real and I was sure she would never like me back.”

Daisuke gave a small choke of laughter, the parallels in what Ken was saying feeling like shards of glass that were dive bombing right into his heart as he replied “You’re Ken Ichijouji, who wouldn’t like you?”

They were silent on the phone for a moment, and Daisuke’s free hand clenched into the blanket on his bed as he tried to work out what to say. What could he say? The boy he loved with all his heart was telling him that he was going out with someone else.

“You don’t hate me for keeping secrets, do you?” asked Ken tentatively and Daisuke felt the guilt wash over him for placing his own hurt over congratulating his best friend for his first girlfriend.

“Of course not, everyone has things they want to keep hidden” he replied quietly before he did his best to put on his happy voice despite the turmoil still raging away in his heart. “I’m really happy for you Ken, I’m just surprised, that’s all”

“Yeah, I’m sorry” replied Ken

“Stop apologising so much, it’s a really bad habit” replied Daisuke, his eyes softening as Ken went ahead and apologised again any way, though Daisuke didn’t know if that was more as a joke than anything. “So what changes now then?”

“Hmm?” replied Ken, “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’ll be hanging out with Miyako a lot more now so I guess we can’t hang out as much,” he said, willing his voice not to waver as it threatened to.

“Oh, I guess you’re right,” replied Ken, as though the thought had only just occurred to him, before giving a nervous chuckle. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Of course he hadn’t thought about that; he was too happy over the girl he loved becoming his girlfriend to think about what that would mean for his best friend. Daisuke knew it wasn’t personal but he couldn’t stop the way his hand seemed to clench even tighter around the blanket, his knuckles going white from the pressure.

“Ah shoot, Jun’s calling me, I’d better go,” he said, knowing he couldn’t bear to be on the line any longer.

“Oh alright,” replied Ken, sounding disappointed, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow, and congrats” he replied before biting his lip to stop them shaking.

“Thanks Daisuke” replied Ken softly and Daisuke felt his heart beat faster at the tone before he gave a hum down the phone. After a moment there was a click as Ken put the phone down and Daisuke was left in silence. The energy that had filled him a moment ago flooded away just as easily as it had arrived, leaving him feeling even emptier than before. His hand fell slowly from his ear and landed heavily on the bed, his fingers so loose that the phone bounced on the bed for a moment before landing safely a few inches from the side.

“Careful Daisuke, you don’t want to break your phone again or your mom will get really mad” announced Chibimon happily as he bounded along the floor and jumped up onto Daisuke’s lap. Chibimon paused for a response, looking up to Daisuke’s face and his own face fell, his big eyes blinking in confusion “Hey Daisuke, what’s wrong? You look so sad. Did something happen?”

Daisuke felt the tears form behind his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to get them to stop. He shouldn’t be crying about this; he had always known that nothing would ever come of his feelings for Ken. Ken was straight and he was not, so no matter how close they were, nothing would ever happen between them. And if he ever did tell Ken how he felt, he was sure Ken would feel uncomfortable around him or even worse, might feel a strange sense of obligation after everything Daisuke had done for him. That’s why he had always kept quiet, so that he could at least still be friends with him. He couldn’t bear to lose him.

He just hadn’t accounted for how much it would hurt though, when Ken finally found a love of his own; how his heart would feel like it was being slowly and painfully ripped apart piece by piece and stomped on right in front of him.

“Daisuke?” ventured Chibimon again quietly, his paw moving to touch Daisuke’s stomach. Daisuke blinked and couldn’t help but watch as a big tear fell from his cheek and landed lightly on Chibimon’s head, the digimon’s slight twitch being the only sign he had noticed as he looked sadly up at him, his wish to do something to help shining clearly in his eyes.

Suddenly he reached down and picked Chibimon up, clutching him to his chest as a sob wracked its way through his body, the tears beginning to fall thick and fast now. Everything was going to change now. Ken would stop spending so much time with him and devote all his attention to Miyako.

He shuffled along the bed and allowed himself to fall back against the pillow, clutching his digimon even tighter as his mind swirled through all his memories with Ken. Meeting him and all their adventures when they were younger. Ken moving to join their school. Them hanging out all the time after school, studying together, playing soccer on the same team. Even the sleepovers where he couldn’t help but look longingly at Ken’s sleeping form and wonder what he did wrong to deserve such an unrequited love. They were all important memories and the two of them had become the closest of friends over the years.

As the tears dripped onto his pillow, he realised that that was probably why it hurt so much. They were the closest two people could be without any romance between them. Daisuke just wanted more than Ken would ever be able to give him. And yet, he would be able to give it all to Miyako. He felt his tears intensify at that thought, a childlike sob escaping his mouth.

“It’s just not fair,” he exclaimed, turning to bury his head in the pillow. He was suddenly glad that the house was empty tonight since it meant there was no-one to see him in the state he was in. His parents were away on a business trip for a few weeks and Jun was out tonight with her boyfriend, Katsuki. Probably until late.

He felt Chibimon’s tiny paws press against him and he pressed his face into his soft fur as Chibimon murmured, “What’s wrong Daisuke?”

“Ken asked Miyako to be his girlfriend,” he replied quietly, knowing he couldn’t just leave the little digimon to worry without explaining. Chibimon might not always understand the complexities of human relationships but he did his best to try, especially where Daisuke was concerned. He gave a big sniff, willing his tears to stop so he could coherently explain everything.

“But why did that make you cry?” asked Chibimon, squirming so he could look up into Daisuke’s eyes, as though that might help him understand. “I thought girlfriends were a good thing?”

Daisuke gave a sad smile and shook his head slightly, “You’re right Chibimon, Ken is very happy but…” He trailed off for a moment, suddenly wishing he had some tissues to wipe the tears from his face as he tried to think of how to explain. “I wanted to be his…boyfriend”

Chibimon’s head cocked to the side slightly, confusion in his eyes as he replied, “So, what’s the problem? Miyako can be his girlfriend and you can be his boyfriend, right?”

Despite the mood, Daisuke let out a snort of sad laughter at Chibimon’s simple view of the world. If only things could be as easy as the young digimon thought they were. “It doesn’t work that way, you can only have one girlfriend or boyfriend but not both.”

“So, you’re sad because it means you can’t be his boyfriend?” asked Chibimon, his face full of concentration as he seemed to finally understand what Daisuke was saying.

Daisuke smiled down at his companion, suddenly grateful for everything he did, and how he was always there to cheer him up when he was feeling down. He pulled Chibimon in tight against his chest and rested his nose against Chibimon’s fur once more as he whispered “Exactly”

Chibimon had managed to make his tears stop, but his stomach still swirled with unhappiness, especially knowing that he was going to have to see Ken tomorrow at school. How was he supposed to look at him now without feeling the unhappiness flow through him? How could he act as he normally did, knowing that he was thinking about Miyako all the time? They had a football match after school too, and if Miyako came along to cheer him on, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to concentrate on the game. He was the captain though. He had to rally everyone on. He couldn’t sulk around like a child; he needed to put on his game face and forget about what was happening outside of the game. Especially since Tai had said he was going to come along to cheer him on. He couldn’t let the older boy down.

At the thought of Tai, he raised his arm and lightly touched the goggles still sitting on his head. He still wore them, even after all these years. In fact, they were his most prized possession and he wore them every single day. They were a sign of Tai’s trust in him when he took over as leader, and they still spurred him on to do his best in his everyday life. Although they had become more like friends, and less like student and mentor over the years, Daisuke still looked up to Tai very much. He knew Tai’s heart had been broken years ago when Sora and Matt started dating but he hadn’t let it affect his life or his friendships. Daisuke would find a way to do the same, no matter how much it hurt.

\--

Daisuke let out a groan as the loud ringing of his alarm clock startled him awake. He flung out his hand and managed to hit the top of the clock, returning blissful silence to the room. On any normal day he would close his eyes again and try and get a few more minutes sleep, leading to him being late for morning soccer practice but right now, being awake was more preferable than being in his dreams. His dreams last night seemed to do nothing but taunt him with scenarios of Ken and Miyako, flaunting their love in front of him and taunting him at the same time. He knew they would never do that in real life but it still left a small pang in his heart. He sat up, doing his best not to disturb Chibimon who was curled up in a ball by his pillow and padded out of his room and into the bathroom. After a few minutes, he wandered back out, still brushing away at his teeth and poked his head into the kitchen, wondering what to cook for breakfast. He paused for a moment though as he spotted a big and a small plate on the table, with a food protector over each and a small note sticking out from under one of them.

He wandered over and realised that Jun must have cooked them breakfast before noting that she really had gone all out as he recognised the European style cooked breakfast, complete with sausages, egg, bacon, mushrooms and other bits. He smiled gratefully around the toothbrush, and pulled the note out to read.

‘ _Daisuke,_  
Chibimon told me what happened and I’m sure you feel terrible so I wanted to do something to cheer you up. I hope this helps a little. I’m sorry I had to leave early this morning; there’s an art exhibition later this week and I’m so far behind on my project that I need to spend the morning working on it. So that means I won’t be able to catch your game either but I’ll make sure to be back at a normal time so we can talk. I’ll get your favourite ice cream on the way back.  
Don’t let yourself get too down.  
Love, Jun’

Daisuke was thankful that their sibling relationship had improved over the years; they really were each other’s emotional support when they needed it. Jun always listened to him when something was wrong and he only hoped he would be able to repay the favour someday. He returned to the bathroom to finish his teeth before returning to his room to change into a clean uniform and wake Chibimon up. His method might have been considered questionable though.

He grabbed Chibimon by the scruff and hauled him up into the air, the little digimon giving a startled yelp as he found himself dangling right in front of Daisuke’s face.

“I didn’t do it!” he exclaimed, his small arms waggling in the air, “It was Patamon! He messed with the computers yesterday! I swear!”

When Daisuke did nothing but raise an eyebrow, he seemed to panic and continued, “He made me do it! He said he’d get me food if I did! I’m sorry Daisuke! Please put me down!”

Daisuke rolled his eyes and put his sniffling partner down on the bed, suddenly glad that he had no intention of getting into crime because he could tell that Chibimon would crack under the slightest interrogation. He hadn’t even asked him anything and he’d confessed to something that he hadn’t even known had happened.

“That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” explained Daisuke as he threw off his clothes from yesterday and began rifling through his draws for a clean set.

“Oh,” replied Chibimon, suddenly sounding back to normal as he cheerfully asked, “What was the question then?”

“You spoke to Jun yesterday?” he asked, sniffing his armpits and suddenly feeling glad that there would be a chance to shower after morning practice. He grabbed a pair of trousers and turned to listen to Chibimon as he pulled them on.

“I heard her come back last night and wanted her to help cheer you up,” admitted Chibimon, looking like a dog who was being scolded, “Was that wrong?”

Daisuke’s eyes widened and he walked straight over and picked Chibimon up, pulling him into a hug as the shame rushed through him. “Of course not, I’m actually really happy you did” he explained and felt Chibimon relax in his arms before adding, “I’m sorry I made you think I was mad.”

After a moment of closeness, Chibimon began to squirm in his arms and loudly complained, “I’m hungry!”

Daisuke grinned and let his digimon jump back down onto the bed before he gave a thumbs up and explained, “Jun made us breakfast and it looks good.”

Chibimon didn’t even let him finish his sentence before he ran past Daisuke and out the door towards the food. Daisuke gave a huff of laughter at Chibimon’s bottomless stomach and grabbed a shirt from the side, rushing to put it on as he followed his digimon out to get some breakfast.

\--

“Chibimon, stop squirming,” he whispered down at his kit bag by his side, where Chibimon was currently hiding. He was sure the smell wasn’t pleasant but he still couldn’t afford to be caught with a squirming bag. There was a small huff before the movement stopped and Daisuke gave a sigh of relief before he turned to watch the pavement ahead of him.

He was finally going to see Ken after their conversation yesterday and despite all Chibimon’s attempts to help him, he was starting to wonder if he was going to be able to keep the disappointment off his face. Ken could normally read him like a book and he doubted this would be any exception. Having said that, he was the sort of person whose face was like an open book for anyone. He wasn’t good at hiding his emotions and back when he had first realised his feelings for Ken, he had taken a week off from school after a day of everyone knowing something was wrong with him. He still didn’t know how he had managed to keep his feelings under wraps for so long. He gave another sigh and jumped when a voice spoke behind him.

“That was a big sigh for so early in the day.”

He spun around to see Iori walking up to him, his schoolbag on his back and his kendo bag in his other arm. As usual his gaze seemed to be piercing right through him and Daisuke gave his best impression of a nonchalant smile. “Morning Iori.”

“So, what’s wrong?” he asked as he came to a stop next to him and Daisuke tried not to pout at the fact his impression clearly hadn’t been good enough. He shouldn’t have been surprised though; Iori was particularly perceptive.

“Nothing, I’m fine,” he replied, with an awkward chuckle, before he tried to mentally slap himself at how unconvincing he sounded and added “I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

Iori raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it but shrugged, apparently deciding not to push him if he didn’t want to talk. Iori started walking and Daisuke matched his pace so they could walk together.

“Early morning kendo practice?” asked Daisuke, wanting to make conversation, even if he knew the answer to his question. They ran into each other on the way to school fairly often, coming from the same part of town, and being in clubs that often had morning practice before school started.

“I have a fight after school so I wanted to get some last minute practice,” he replied, hitching his bag up on his shoulder as it began to slip down. He frowned slightly and said, “I’m sorry I won’t get to see your match today Daisuke.”

“I’m sorry I won’t get to see your fight, so we’re even,” replied Daisuke, grinning as he waved his free hand in the air. He knew Iori couldn’t always make it, even though he tried to come along and support him and Ken when he could and in return Daisuke always did his best to make it to any of Iori’s fights when he could. They didn’t always hang out a lot, being in different years at school but they had been friends for so long that it was natural to want to support each other.

Iori nodded and gave a small smile before he said, “Whether I win or lose will determine whether I can come to the digital world tomorrow.”

Ever since things had calmed down in the digital world, the digidestined didn’t have much of a reason to go anymore, and although this made it easier for them to pursue their regular lives, they all missed going there. When it was clear they all felt the same way, Daisuke had proposed visiting once a week to check up on things and everyone had seemed to latch onto the idea. They’d been doing the trips for about a year now and it was a huge part of their routine, even if not everyone could make it every week.

“Well I hope you win anyway,” he replied, grinning over at Iori before turning back to watch the school gates slowly get closer, “Takeru doesn’t have any games on and neither do we so the rest of us will still be there.”

Iori nodded and once they reached the school gates, they parted, both heading in different directions. Daisuke hurried towards the spare computer room where they all tended to leave their digimon when they brought them to school. Iori tended to leave Bupamon with his grandpa and Hikari tended to leave Tailmon at home with Agumon and their mother. The rest of them tended to bring their digimon with them, whether for moral support or to prevent them from ransacking the house whilst they were gone. For Daisuke, it was the latter reason. If Chibimon was left alone at home, he tended to find the weirdest ways to entertain himself, most of which involved some form of destruction or mess. He shuddered as he thought of the last time he had left Chibimon alone. Never again.

It seemed Ken had already been by because Minomon was there, hiding behind the desk but he floated out when he saw that it was them and greeted them happily “Good morning!”

Daisuke shook his head at how different he was as Minomon and as Wormmon. Wormmon was much more docile and restrained so it was nice to see him more outgoing in his in-training form. His bag began to move again and he hastily unzipped his bag and Chibimon jumped out, landing gracefully on the floor before turning to Daisuke with a frown and complaining, “Do you ever wash that kit? I think my nose is about to fall off!”

Daisuke pouted at his partner and rebutted, “You don’t even have a nose!”

He watched as Chibimon gave a long drawn out gasp, looking as offended as he possibly could before he stuck his arm towards Daisuke and said, “Take that back.”

Daisuke crouched down on the floor and pursed his lips for a moment as if in thought before he replied, “No.” With that Chibimon roared and jumped at him, quickly sending Daisuke tumbling to the ground as the two began their usual roughhousing. Minomon floated worriedly around them, as if looking for some way to make them stop.

“You are being way too energetic for this time in the morning,” came a voice from the door before there was a squeaky giggle and a hum of agreement.

Daisuke looked up from where he was, with his hands pulling at Chibimon’s cheeks and Chibimon’s arm pushing his nose right up, to see Takeru standing in the doorway, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

“Or maybe you’re not energetic enough,” he replied dumbly, before realising he sounded nasally from where Chibimon had his nose. He let Chibimon go and thankfully Chibimon released him in return. He sat up quickly and rubbed his nose before asking, “You’re coming to see the game today right?”

“It’s the game that decides if you’re going to nationals, of course I’m going!” he replied, his eyes widening slightly as if to ask how he could even consider it a question.

He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment and turned to see Patamon fly down to greet the other two digimon. “I just thought you might have practice or something.”

Suddenly there was a hand in front of Daisuke’s face, offering to help him up as Takeru smirked and replied, “That’s the perks of dating the manager, I can get the session off if I want to.”

Daisuke rolled his eyes, knowing he was referring to Hikari who had taken on the role of manager when none of the other clubs stood out to her. He also knew that dating her made no difference to taking a session off; he just liked to brag sometimes, as if he still couldn’t quite believe it himself. Despite the gentle ribbing he took Takeru’s hand and let him haul him up off the ground before retrieving his bags.

“We’ll see you later guys, and be good,” he said, watching as the digimon waved vaguely in their direction, obviously already too busy discussing todays activity to pay any attention to them leaving. He heard Takeru give a huff of laughter before the two of them made their way out and down the hallway, back towards the sports area.

“See you at lunch,” said Takeru as he split off from Daisuke to head towards the sports hall. With that Daisuke picked up his pace, half wanting to get there on time since he was captain and half because he wanted to see Ken. Damn, he was lying to himself. He just wanted to see Ken. He didn’t know how he was going to feel until he saw him and he was sick of the suspense.

Within moments he was at the entrance to the changing rooms and he pushed the door open, noting many of his team were already here. His eyes were drawn straight to Ken who was already in his kit and looked up at him with a smile. Daisuke did his best to smile back but he was hideously aware that his face was frozen. His insides suddenly felt like they were made from jelly and he realised with slight panic that this was exactly how he’d felt when he first realised he’d fallen for Ken; hyperaware of himself at all times. His eyes didn’t move from Ken’s though and he watched as Ken blinked in confusion at his uncharacteristic behaviour but didn’t look away, as if he could read the answers on Daisuke’s face. Oh god, maybe he could.

His staring match was cut short as he found his neck suddenly tugged down into an armlock, with a fist being rubbed against his head. “Late again, captain?”

“Come on Natsu, I’m earlier than I normally am,” he replied, his bag falling out of his hand as he attempted to pull his teammate’s hand away from his neck, “and besides, practice hasn’t started yet so I’m not late.”

“Must be the first time in a while,” commented Natsu and Daisuke could practically hear his grin.

“Oh come on, I may be a tiny bit late to morning practice but I always stay longer after school,” argued Daisuke, knowing Natsu was only teasing him but desperate to save at least a little face in front of his team.

“Natsu, let the captain go or he won’t have enough time to change,” rang Sunakawa’s deep voice from the other side of the room.

“You’re such a party pooper, Suna,” replied Natsu but he let Daisuke go and he stood up straight and cracked his neck to the side as he turned to see Natsu pouting up at Sunakawa, who towered over all of them.

“Thanks Sunakawa,” he said and Sunakawa broke his gaze away from Natsu and gave him a nod before he led Natsu back to finish getting ready. Daisuke glanced around and was glad to see that everyone who was playing in the match later was here. They would have to make sure their training was only light this morning to make sure no-one injured or overstretched themselves and had to be swapped out. All the reserve players were good but he would prefer to have all his best players in the match, for the whole match.

He quickly headed over to the spare space on the benches next to Ken and began to get changed, his mind so busy running through today’s training that he barely even noticed Ken’s presence until he spoke.

“Are you alright this morning Daisuke?” asked Ken, and Daisuke turned to meet his worried gaze. Normally that gaze would have had him reeling but he had switched into captain mode and much to Daisuke’s delight, it seemed to be immune from his charms, as it always had been, even before the most recent news. All he had to do was keep thinking about soccer and he’d be fine.

With this knowledge he smiled brightly at Ken and nodded “I’m great.”

\--

He’d managed to make it through the day…somehow. He’d snapped straight back out of captain mode as soon as practice was over and despite his best attempts, it hadn’t returned. All Ken had to do during class was glance in his direction and Daisuke’s heart began a marathon; it was exhausting. Hikari seemed to notice something wasn’t right with him right away but much to his relief, she didn’t bring it up in front of Ken and waited until lunch when Ken went to get them some food before asking him.

“Daisuke, something is obviously wrong, what’s going on?” she asked a few moments after Ken had disappeared out of the door, leaving him alone with her and Takeru.

“Nothing, I’m fine,” he had said, still trying to get his heart to calm down.

“Come on Daisuke, I’m your friend and I’m worried about you, maybe we can help?” replied Hikari, her brows creasing as she leaned across the table slightly. Takeru nodded from where he was sitting on the desk next to them in agreement.

Daisuke narrowed his eyes, wishing everyone would just mind their own business as he replied, “Maybe you could help if something was wrong but nothing is wrong so you can’t.”

“We’re not stupid Daisuke,” interjected Takeru, “You’re being quiet and that’s not like you at all.”

“Just leave it alone,” he snapped, all too aware that he couldn’t tell anyone what was wrong for fear of Ken finding out and their friendship being ruined.

Hikari and Takeru had looked shocked at his outburst for a moment before Takeru clicked his tongue in annoyance and muttered, “You don’t have to bite our heads off.”

After that, Hikari had safely steered their conversation back to a more neutral topic and when Ken returned, their lunch had continued without incident. He suffered through the rest of his classes, not really paying much attention to the teachers, although that in itself was nothing new.

\--

Daisuke walked out of the changing rooms and onto the pitch, his team all walking with him before they split off to look for their friends or family who’d come to watch the game. They had a few minutes to burn before the coach would call them together anyway.

“Hey Daisuke, Ken!”

Daisuke turned to see his friends all standing along the edge of the pitch; Takeru and Hikari were there, holding onto Patamon, Chibimon and Minomon, who gave discreet waves despite their usual warnings not to make themselves obvious. Next to them were Tai and Sora who smiled down at them and next to them was…

“Miyako, you made it?” exclaimed Ken, rushing over to meet her. The others gave a knowing look and Daisuke instantly knew that they had all been informed about the two getting together.

“Of course I made it, I wouldn’t stop pestering Koushiro until he let me, but I couldn’t get him to come by,” she explained, before she pursed her lips and did her best Koushiro impression, “If I went to every sports game my friends were a part of then I’d never leave the pitch.”

The others laughed and Daisuke was sure he would be laughing too if his eyes weren’t immediately drawn to Ken and Miyako’s entwined hands. His eyes didn’t leave it until he heard Tai suddenly say “Hey Daisuke, let’s go talk strategy.”

Daisuke’s head snapped up and he felt blood rush to his cheeks; he could only hope no-one had noticed he’d been staring. That was all he needed, when everyone already knew something was wrong. He followed Tai as he split himself away from the group and walked further down so that they could talk without being overheard.

“You ready for this? It’s a big game,” said Tai as he glanced over to the other side of the pitch where the other team were.

“Of course I’m ready,” replied Daisuke, though he knew the enthusiasm wasn’t there as his gaze was instead drawn back over to where Ken and Miyako were still holding hands.

“Oi, I’m talking to you Daisuke,” called Tai from in front of him and Daisuke snapped his gaze back around to see Tai frown at him before his gaze softened and he asked, “What’s going on?”

“Huh?” replied Daisuke, trying to sound nonchalant, “Nothing’s going on.”

Tai raised an eyebrow in disbelief but when Daisuke said no more he shrugged and put a hand on Daisuke’s shoulder, “Whatever is going on in that head of yours, don’t let it affect the match, you need to keep your head in the game if you want to win.”

Daisuke nodded, knowing he was completely right. He needed to forget about everything else and just think about the match and how they were going to win it. He wouldn’t let the team lose their chance at nationals because he couldn’t deal with a broken heart. He was stronger than that.

“That’s more like it.” Tai smiled at him, obviously sensing the change and let go of his shoulder, instead holding his fist out with a grin. Daisuke grinned back and bumped it with his own fist, glad that Tai was there to give him the pep talk he needed.

He heard the coach calling for them to gather and Tai gave him a thumbs up and motioned his head for him to go, “Go and win!”

Daisuke grinned even wider and waved goodbye to Tai as he jogged back to where all the players were gathering around the coach. They had discussed strategy previously so the coach was really just getting them pumped up with some words of encouragement. The energy practically buzzed around them and Daisuke felt so fired up that he could meet Ken’s eyes and grin.

The game started off pretty well; Daisuke had first possession of the ball and he, Ken and the other two strikers tore down the pitch. He managed to dodge past one defender and fake another one out by passing it to Banri, his fellow striker but one of the opposing team intercepted the pass and sent it back up the pitch. It went like this for a while until Banri managed to steal the ball back and hare past the other team, passing it to Ken at the last moment who sent it flying into the goal. Masaki, the other striker caught Ken in a headlock tackle in celebration and Daisuke couldn’t help but grin, determined not to let Ken steal the entire spotlight. The next goal was his and he sent a victory sign to Tai in the audience who sent him a thumbs up back.

The other team managed to score a goal before the half time but they were still in the lead and he felt confident in his team. Sunakawa had done well to only let one goal in considering how strong the strikers on the opposing team were.

When the second half started, the two teams fought over possession of the ball once more before Ken claimed it and flew down the pitch, with Daisuke flanking him in case he needed to pass it. Suddenly though, one of the opposing team rammed into Ken from the side and suddenness of the action had sent Ken toppling to the ground, landing right on top of Daisuke since they had been right next to each other.

Daisuke barely even noticed the pain from the rough landing because all he could tell was that he suddenly had a face full of black hair as Ken’s body was lying right on top of his own. Daisuke couldn’t help the colour rushing to his cheeks as Ken’s scent seemed to wrap around him, even as the other boy put his hands either side of Daisuke to lever himself up.

He was vaguely aware of a whistle being blown to signify the foul but all he could do was look into Ken’s eyes as Ken grimaced and said “Sorry about that Daisuke”

Daisuke shook his head, unable to form a coherent sentence with Ken’s legs still pressed against his own and hands either side of his head. He had only ever dreamed of being in this position and it took all of his self-control not to pull Ken back down on top of him like he wanted to. Maybe that was why it was such a disappointment when Ken jumped up to his feet, his scent disappearing into the air before he held a hand out to offer to pull him up.

Daisuke stared blearily at Ken’s hand for a moment, his brain still full of the memory of Ken’s intoxicating scent and the feel of his body against Daisuke’s own. It wasn’t until some far away part of his brain realised that Ken was frowning worriedly down at him that he quickly took Ken’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he let go of Daisuke’s hand, his eyes changing to the grey blue colour that they did when he was worried.

“Sorry, I’m fine,” he replied, trying to stop himself from staring too obviously into Ken’s eyes. He forced himself to look away as the whistle blew for the game to continue. The ball was to be kicked back onto the pitch by Masaki and Daisuke stood, staring at the ball, even though his mind was somewhere far away. In a place where Ken was pressed against him, where he could pull Ken into him even more and breathe his scent deep into his lungs before pulling back and kissing him, like he’d wanted to do for years. The feel of Ken’s lips warm against his…

“Daisuke!”

Suddenly something hit his head and the force sent him tumbling back and down to the floor so hard that his head whacked the ground and made his head spin. He clutched at his head in an effort to make the pain go away and he was vaguely aware of people around him but the ringing in his ears took a few moments before it would disappear.

The first thing he heard was a worried, “Do we need a stretcher?”

“I don’t need a stretcher,” he groaned out, opening his eyes to see several of his team, the referee and the coach hovering around him.

“Come on Daisuke, let’s get you up and off the pitch,” said the coach, a hand placed around his arm to help haul him up. Daisuke groaned but did his best to get to his feet as the people surrounding him took a step back to give him some space. He couldn’t look anyone in the face, knowing how he’d screwed up what should have been an easy possession for their side, and all because he couldn’t get his mind to focus on the game. The thumping pain in his head was probably his comeuppance.

He allowed the coach to help him over to the side. He was sat on a bench on his own, with the reserves sat on the furthest bench by the coach and as he sat down, the coach gestured for Sugimura to sub in. He still couldn’t look anyone in the face but he watched Sugimura’s feet jump up and run out to the pitch before he put his head between his knees in an effort to make it stop pounding.

He heard the whistle signify the game starting back up and as he listened to the sound of feet running up and down the pitch, the throbbing in his head started to lessen. He was desperately trying to think of nothing but the sounds around him but his mind kept wandering back to Ken’s body pressed against his and he could feel tears building up in his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut even more, determined not to cry in front of the team. He knew it had been silly for his hopes to suddenly be dashed when there wasn’t even any hope to begin with. He just couldn’t help it though. He loved Ken and that wasn’t the sort of thing that would change overnight.

Suddenly he felt someone sit next to him and a hand was placed lightly on his shoulder, “How you holding up there?” It was Tai. He must have snuck in from the audience to check on him.

“My head isn’t throbbing as much now,” he muttered, still wishing he could just disappear into a hole in the ground and not reappear until his feelings for Ken had disappeared.

“That was quite a knock to your head there, I’m surprised you got up so quickly,” he replied, his tone light and gentle, as if he was trying to soothe a digimon. Daisuke gave a noncommittal grunt in reply and they were silent for a few more moments before the stands erupted into cheers, showing that someone had won a goal. The cheers of the reserves on the bench made it obvious that it was their team who’d scored another goal. He was glad.

“So Daisuke, are you going to tell me what’s been rattling around in your head?” asked Tai conversationally. Daisuke felt himself frown and made no move to reply to him. He wasn’t in any frame of mind to come up with a decent lie and the truth was a no-go, even if they were out of hearing range of the reserves. He would take his secret to the grave if he had to.

“Come on Daisuke, you can talk to me,” he added, squeezing Daisuke’s shoulder slightly, “Maybe I can even help you with it?”

Daisuke resisted the urge to give a cold laugh at Tai’s assumption that whatever was wrong with him could be fixed. He wished it was something that could be so easily fixed. “I’m fine Tai,” he replied after a moment.

Tai gave a small frustrated sigh before he spoke again, “You got hit in the head with a football because you weren’t fine.”

Why wouldn’t Tai take the hint and stop bugging him? He clearly didn’t want to talk about it. “I said, I’m fine Tai,” he replied through gritted teeth, the frustration building in his gut.

“Come on Daisuke, you’re not fooling anyone, just talk to me, I want to help.”

He shot up from where he was, Tai’s hand falling off his shoulder. He ignored the way his head span in protest of the sudden movement. He glared up at Tai and spat out “Mind your own damn business.”

The look of shock on Tai’s face was not something that he had seen before and guilt rushed through him. He wouldn’t apologise though; Tai had been too nosy and just wouldn’t leave him alone. Tai pursed his lips and frowned, silent for a moment as his words seemed to echo around them and eventually he nodded minutely. “Fine then” he replied as he stood up and retreated back to the stands.

The guilt didn’t disappear though and he put his head back between his legs with a groan. So now, he’d alienated Tai too. Great job, he thought bitterly. Dammit, he just wanted to go home and eat sugar and play video games until his brain turned to mush. Then he wouldn’t have to think about anything. He didn’t want to think about his feelings for his best friend or think about the fact that Ken and Miyako were now dating. He didn’t want to think about how he’d screwed up on the pitch or how everybody kept pestering him to tell them what was wrong. He didn’t want to push them away but he would never risk the truth getting out. It would ruin his whole life.

A little while later, he finally lifted his head from his hands and stared out at the pitch, knowing he should be watching the match. His teammates were doing their best out there to bring their team to the nationals and he was just sitting here and feeling sorry for himself. He was a failure of a captain.

He watched as the opposing team scored another goal, bringing the two teams to a draw with not much time left on the clock. If no-one scored a goal then they would go into extra time and looking at how tired some of his team were, he knew that it wouldn’t be good for them, even if they would keep fighting until the end. If his head weren’t still sore then he’d jump back out there himself.

Ken met Daisuke’s gaze from across the pitch and he cocked his head to the side in an unspoken question. Daisuke gave a small smile, knowing it didn’t reach his eyes but also knowing that Ken wouldn’t be able to see from that far away before he gave a thumbs up. He saw Ken smile and nod before the whistle blew for the game to start back up.

Ken seemed to suddenly leap into action, as though he’d been shot out of a rocket and Banri, Sugimura and Masaki must have felt the pulse of his energy too because they were running up the field with him as he weaved past players and faked out passes. Daisuke could only watch in awe as the time ticked down and Ken continued to get past the other players before kicking it towards the goal. The opposing goalie leapt towards it and it grazed the tips of his fingers but went in anyway.

Daisuke leapt to his feet in celebration, cheering loudly, along with his fellow teammates and all the people watching. The game wasn’t over but that had been the match winning goal; the other team hadn’t been able to get any more goals after that and their team had been called as the winners. Everyone on the team cheered loudly and hugged everyone and Daisuke let himself crawl out of his pit of self-pity long enough to celebrate with them.

“How’s your head?” asked Ken in the changing rooms once all the celebrating had quietened down.

“It’s much better now,” he replied, stuffing his kit into his bag, glad that he no longer felt the throbbing pain. He watched as Ken hitched his bag up on his shoulders and did the same before he added, “I’m sorry that I didn’t play the whole game.”

Ken smiled softly at him and shook his head, a simple gesture to remind him that it wasn’t his fault, before asking, “What happened anyway? You looked totally out of it.”

“I was just thinking too much,” he replied, knowing he couldn’t lie to Ken forever. He would have to come up with some kind of believable excuse at some point to explain away his behaviour. Maybe he would be lucky and Ken wouldn’t ask.

Ken gave a small chuckle and Daisuke glanced over to see Ken looking at him with an amused expression before he explained, “You got hurt from thinking too much. The others would never let you hear the end of that.”

Daisuke felt his cheeks heat up as he looked at the twinkle in Ken’s eyes and he looked away with a nod. “Takeru and Miyako especially.”

They made their way slowly out of the changing rooms, exchanging goodbyes with the rest of the team and once they were in the quiet hallway, Ken spoke up. “Do you want to talk about it? Whatever is bothering you?”

Daisuke was silent for a few moments, his pulse racing away before he replied honestly, “Not really…”

“Alright, that’s fair,” replied Ken as they reached the exit before turning around to look at Daisuke and giving him a warm smile, “But I’m always there if you want to talk.”

He was sure he must be blushing bright red under Ken’s kind gaze but he gave a quick nod anyway and managed to reply “Thanks.”

Ken’s smile merely softened in response before he opened the door and walked out, letting Daisuke dart out to keep up with him. They rounded the corner of the building and saw their friends waiting for them. Daisuke immediately noticed that Tai wasn’t with them though and the guilt swirled around his stomach, even though everyone else was smiling at them.

When they walked closer, Miyako jumped over and wrapped her arms around Ken with a happy squeal, “You were so great!”

“Yeah, that last goal was pretty impressive; it was like you’d been shot out of a canon,” added Takeru, Patamon wiggling in his arms in agreement. Daisuke glanced around to see that Hikari was holding onto Minomon and Sora was holding onto Chibimon who was staring at Daisuke, a worried pout on his face. He walked over to Sora and she smiled and handed Chibimon straight over, who did his best to wrap his paws around Daisuke in a hug but his little paws didn’t stretch very far.

“Did Tai head off already?” asked Daisuke quietly as the others continued to chat to Ken.

“Yeah, he said he had some stuff to do,” she replied before her smile softened and she asked, “How’s your head?”

Daisuke gave an awkward smile as he stroked Chibimon’s fur soothingly and replied, “I’m better now; more embarrassed that I let myself get hit than anything…”

“I wouldn’t worry; Tai’s done that more times than I can count,” replied Sora with a grin.

Suddenly he heard Miyako’s voice call out from behind him, “Hey Daisuke, how’s your head? That was one hell of an impact!”

Daisuke rolled his eyes as he turned to face them; Miyako was obviously as compassionate as ever. Although he realised, as he looked at her face, and the others, that they did all look genuinely concerned and he felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. “I’m fine, honest. You know how hard my head is! It’s not like a football could do any real damage to me.”

Takeru and Miyako gave a snort of laughter, whilst Hikari just gave him a relieved smile. Ken smiled too before he asked, “We’re thinking of going to see a film or something, do you want to come Daisuke? Sora, you can come too if you want?”

He sensed Sora shake her head from behind him before she explained, “I’m off to Yamato’s but I appreciate the offer, thanks guys.”

“That’s alright, so Daisuke, how about it?” he asked, his gaze resting on Daisuke’s now.

Did he want to be the fifth wheel to what would otherwise be a double date? No he really didn’t; he wanted to go home and eat a whole tub of ice cream before soaking in the bath until his skin became all wrinkled like a prune. Then video games until bed. He’d feel better after that.

“I’ll pass for today,” he replied with a smile that he was sure they could tell was forced.

Ken’s face fell slightly but he nodded anyway, “Alright.”

After that, they all said their goodbyes and separated off, and Daisuke walked back towards his home with just Chibimon for company.

“Are you really alright Daisuke? I was so worried when you got hit by that ball,” muttered Chibimon as he finally looked up to Daisuke’s face.

“Sorry for worrying you Chibimon but my head is fine now, honestly,” he replied, patting the small digimon gently on the head to comfort him, “I was just thinking too much.”

“About Ken?” he asked and Daisuke nodded, diverting them into the park, as he always did to get back home.

“I guess I got upset again when I saw them together…” he replied, his eyes jumping between Chibimon and the concrete pavement beneath his feet. He used the steady rhythm of his walking to stop himself from getting upset, torn between wanting to explain everything to Chibimon and not wanting to think about it ever again. “I’m jealous and I hate it…” he added eventually and Chibimon gave a small noise as if to comfort him.

Suddenly he sensed someone ahead of him and he snapped his head up to see none other than Tai standing there, staring at him in the middle of the path. It was a serious stare and one that was normally reserved for football matches or battles or other tough issues. So why was it aimed at him right now?

“We need to talk,” he said after a moment of staring and Daisuke felt goosebumps rise on his skin as though sensing the threat. Daisuke’s eyes darted around as though examining for any escape routes and he managed to swallow a startled cry when Tai took a sudden step towards him, bringing Daisuke’s gaze back to Tai.

“If you run, I will be able to catch you,” said Tai, his eyes narrowing slightly in anger, “You know I’m faster than you are.”

Daisuke knew he was being unreasonable to be thinking of running away but he knew what Tai was like when he got into this mind-set. There was no way that he would leave Daisuke alone until he told him the truth. He knew it wasn’t for a nasty reason, he knew it was because Tai could tell that there was something very wrong and he wanted to fix it. But Daisuke just couldn’t tell Tai the truth. All it would take was for one of the digidestined to find out and then it would only be a matter of time until they all knew. Until Ken knew.

“Why are you doing this Tai?” exclaimed Chibimon, jumping down from Daisuke’s arms to stand protectively in front of him.

“I’m doing this because I want to help him,” replied Tai, not taking his eyes off of Daisuke, as though he didn’t trust him not to run off from the slightest distraction. Was that the image he was really giving to Tai right now? And he was letting his digimon protect him…was he really so emotionally frail that he needed Chibimon to be his bodyguard?

He stepped forward, breaking his gaze from Tai to look down at Chibimon, who looked right up to him as he moved before muttering, “Come on, let’s go.” With that, he proceeded to walk forward, ignoring Tai completely and hoping to have startled Tai enough that he would let him walk right past.

Tai wasn’t having any of it though and grabbed Daisuke’s arm as he went past. Daisuke glanced over to see Tai’s mouth pursed into a frown before he spoke again, this time softer than before. “Daisuke, you know that your face is like an open book right? We can all tell that something is really distressing you right now. Please, let me help you.”

“You can’t help,” he replied, looking away, knowing how he must look but unable to stop the way his heart clenched painfully in his chest. No-one could help; it was something that would only heal with time.

The hand that held his arm let him go and he was about to thank Tai for finally understanding that he didn’t want to talk about it when he felt a hand either side of his waist and suddenly Tai had thrown him over his shoulder and began to walk. Daisuke was so startled by the sudden action that Tai was able to walk a few steps unhindered before his brain caught up and he loudly exclaimed, “What the hell!? Put me down!”

He watched Chibimon dart after them, his confusion clear in the fact that he wasn’t saying anything. Tai didn’t respond to Daisuke, even when Daisuke brought a fist down against Tai’s back in an effort to get him back to ground level. But neither that nor any of the complaining made Tai veer from his objective and within moments they walked into a bushy area where they wouldn’t be able to be seen from the main paths.

Tai finally released his strong grip and Daisuke pushed against Tai and landed with an unbalanced hop on the ground, Chibimon running to stand beside him as he pointed an accusatory finger at Tai and said, “What the hell was that for?!”

“You looked like you were about to cry,” replied Tai, his voice gentle and his face no longer stern and hard. The way Tai was looking at him so softly made him feel suddenly vulnerable, like he was fragile and breakable. He didn’t like it one bit.

“Tai, I’m serious, mind your own business,” he said, willing his voice to be as unyielding. He was going home and there was nothing Tai cold do to stop it.

He walked forward and just as before, Tai grabbed Daisuke’s arm, but he didn’t let Tai get any words out, instead wheeling round suddenly, sending his fist into Tai’s unsuspected face. The punch sent him sprawling back onto the ground, where he clutched his cheek, which would soon be sporting a bruise. Tai gave a shocked look to Daisuke and Daisuke felt the guilt run through him but he knew Tai hadn’t left him any choice.

With that he turned and began to walk away. What he didn’t expect was for Tai to start fighting back which was what happened when Tai leapt forward and grabbed Daisuke’s legs, sending him toppling to the grass. He hurriedly tried to turn over in an effort to fight back but as soon as he had managed it, he found that Tai was straddling him to keep him on the floor and Tai had his arms pinned to the side of his head. His glare from earlier was back too.

“How do you expect me to leave you alone when you’re acting so weird?” he asked, effortlessly keeping Daisuke to the ground despite his struggling. Daisuke was really hating the fact that Tai was stronger than he was right now. When Daisuke didn’t reply, Tai growled out, “I’m not letting you go until you tell me.”

“Then we’re going to be here a long time,” replied Daisuke, glaring right back at Tai, finally allowing himself to stop struggling. Tai wouldn’t just sit there forever. He was stubborn but not as stubborn as Daisuke was.

“Tai, let him go,” whined Chibimon, hopping from one foot to the other, knowing that there was something wrong but not knowing how to help, “He’s just sad because…”

“Chibi…mmph,” Daisuke attempted to interrupt his digimon but one of Tai’s hands released one of Daisuke’s arms to cover his mouth instead. Daisuke tried to push Tai’s hand away but Tai’s grip was firm as he turned his gaze to Chibimon, who had thankfully stopped talking.

“Chibimon, if you tell me why he’s sad then I’ll let him go,” said Tai, ignoring the way Daisuke was clawing at his arm.

Daisuke did his best to look at his digimon, trying to convey in his eyes that he didn’t want that but somehow Tai was keeping him completely in place from just the hand over his mouth.

“He’s sad that Ken and Miyako are boyfriend and girlfriend,” he replied and Daisuke’s eyes widened in alarm. Chibimon had ratted him out but it wasn’t too late; maybe Tai wouldn’t get to the route of the problem.

“Why would that make him sad?” asked Tai, his brows knitting together in confusion and Daisuke suddenly started to struggle even harder, even going so far as to try and bite the hand that was covering his mouth.

“Because he wanted to be Ken’s boyfriend.” Daisuke couldn’t help the panicked whine that escaped his mouth and Tai’s wide eyes suddenly looked down and met Daisuke’s. The surprise in them was clear and Daisuke looked away, taking a deep breath when Tai took his hand off his mouth. It was all over now. It would only be a matter of time until everyone knew and then Ken would never be able to treat him the same way again. Hell, none of his male friends would probably look at him the same way again. They can be as open-minded as they liked but all of them would think twice about going to a bath house with him. He was vaguely aware that he was taking quicker breaths and he thought he could hear Tai saying something but he couldn’t face him. Tai probably thought less of him too; how he was stupid enough to let his feelings get in the way of the match. And then he gave Tai such a hard time too. Oh god, he was going to lose everyone.

Suddenly something collided with the side of his head and he gave out a cry as the pain exploded in his head once more. After a moment he opened his eyes to see a red mark on Tai’s head…he’d head-butted Daisuke.

“Stop panicking Daisuke for god’s sake,” chastised Tai, suddenly looking a lot less angry and a lot more afraid. It was then that Daisuke realised his hands were free and he brought one to his head, rubbing it gently, giving a small groan as he did so. “Daisuke…”

“You said you’d let me go,” muttered Daisuke, not wanting Tai to start talking about it. He knew Tai would never be anything but supportive but he didn’t want to hear the empty words right now.

“Right…” mumbled Tai quietly as he lifted himself up and off of Daisuke, who sat up slowly, still rubbing his head.

“It’s not a big deal you know…” started Tai, rubbing the back of his neck but not meeting Daisuke’s gaze.

“Can we please not talk about this?” replied Daisuke weakly as he stood up, allowing Chibimon to jump into his arms. He looked away as Tai’s eyes flickered over to meet his, instead choosing to stare at the flattened grass where he’d been just a moment ago.

Tai was silent and Daisuke knew he was waging an internal war in his head over whether to say something or let him be. After a few awkward moments, Tai finally spoke, his voice quiet and uncertain, “I won’t tell anyone, if you don’t want me to…”

Daisuke nodded, glad of that much, even if he knew his friendship with Tai had suddenly changed in the space of a few moments. Without another word, he turned and made his way back to the main path so he could go home. This time, Tai didn’t stop him.

\--

Daisuke walked in through the door, Chibimon back in his arms so he didn’t attract too much attention. Jun’s shoes weren’t by the front door so that meant she wasn’t home yet, despite what she had said. He didn’t blame her for it; it must be tough balancing school, her club and her boyfriend who she saw every day. He didn’t need to throw himself into the mix.

Chibimon jumped down from his arms and turned to face Daisuke, a guilty look on his face, “I’m really sorry Daisuke.”

Daisuke shook his head gently as he kicked his shoes off and mumbled, “It’s fine.”

Chibimon’s face seemed to fall even more and he did his best impression of a bow, even going so far as to slam his head on the ground before he cried, “I’m sorry Daisuke! I let you down! I’m a failure of a partner! Punish me however you see fit!”

With his words said, he let out a pitiful little wail and Daisuke gave a sigh. He was a little upset at Chibimon but he wasn’t angry; it was Tai who’d pushed until Chibimon thought that was the best thing to do. He knelt down next to his partner and ran his fingers gently through the fur on Chibimon’s head before he said, “I don’t blame you Chibimon; it wasn’t your fault”

Chibimon lifted his head and looked at Daisuke through teary eyes. He sniffed before asking, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” he replied, moving his hand round to scratch at the spot just behind Chibimon’s ear that always turned him into a malleable mess. Within moments, Chibimon had stopped crying and was lying on the ground, making appreciative groans. Daisuke smiled down at his partner; he really was like a dog at times. Maybe that was why Daisuke was so good with animals; after all his practice with Chibimon he had to be.

Suddenly his phone chimed in his pocket and he grabbed it with his spare hand to see that there was a new message in the group chat. He flicked the screen to read it and saw that it was from Miyako.

_Hey Daisuke, I told my family about Ken and they want to meet him tomorrow. I can’t talk them out of it. Is it okay if we miss the trip tomorrow? Takeru and Hikari are okay with it if you are. What do you say?_

Daisuke stopped scratching Chibimon and ran his hand through his own hair, knowing that there was only one appropriate answer to give. He quickly typed back.

_That’s fine._

Daisuke waited for the gleeful thanks of Miyako to come back through before he pocketed his phone and turned to smile wearily at Chibimon. “Let’s get some food going, yeah?”

Chibimon nodded, his tears having dried away and followed Daisuke into the kitchen, even though he couldn’t do anything to help. Instead, Daisuke let his partner chatter away whilst he set about chopping vegetables and making fresh pasta. Daisuke had always known he wanted to run a noodle cart but he hadn’t realised he actually had a knack for cooking until the other year and he’d done most of his own cooking ever since. Cooking seemed to be the one thing, apart from football, that he could completely lose himself in, where the world around him seemed to disappear as he concentrated on the task at hand. Although…it seemed like football was struggling to keep that reputation considering his performance earlier.

He shook his head, as he placed the vegetables into a pan and began to fry them, determined to think of anything but what was wrong. The look of shock on Tai’s face seemed burned into his brain though and he had to lean on the counter for a moment so his brain would keep working.

“Daisuke?” asked Chibimon from his seat on the opposite counter, his brow creasing in worry.

“I’m fine,” insisted Daisuke, shaking his head again and stirring the vegetables.

Why did it have to be Tai that found out? It was better than Ken or Miyako but that was it. He knew Tai would never tell anyone but he also knew that this would change his relationship with his sempai. Tai would never think the same of him, and even if he didn’t have a problem with his sexuality, then he would still think less of him after his abysmal performance at the match. Why was he slowly losing the close relationships he had with the people around him?

The distinctive clicks of the main door opening and closing echoed through the house and Daisuke kept his head down, trying to ignore the way his vision was beginning to mist up. He heard Jun walk into the house and dump of bags before she made her way to the kitchen. Daisuke didn’t want to turn around but the way his shoulders were shaking ever so slightly seemed to be a dead giveaway.

“Oh, sweetie,” she greeted softly, walking over and turning off the stove before she pulled at Daisuke’s hand to bring him around and into a hug.

A sob suddenly escaped him, as if his mind was finally recognising that it was safe to let everything out. Jun knew all about her feelings for Ken and Chibimon had told her what had transpired yesterday. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head against her shoulder, the tears continuing to flood out of him. He knew he would need to tell her about everything that had happened today but right now he just wanted a moment to grieve for the love that he would never have and the friendship that was forever changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been on the cards for almost 2 years. I wrote the first draft nearly 2 years ago now and i've been re-writing it and tweaking it and judging it ever since. I finally re-read it the other day and decided it was good enough to share since there's not enough material out there for this beautiful rare pair.  
> I've finished writing but i'm just going through and doing a few edits so i'm staggering the chapters so i can edit them. It won't take too long though :)


	2. Confessions

“I’m really sorry Daisuke,” apologised Hikari on the other end of the phone line, “Takeru caught a fever last night and he can’t come today and I can’t…I mean I know he’ll be fine but…”

“It’s alright Hikari,” reassured Daisuke, from his seat on the sofa as he found himself running his fingers through Chibimon’s fur once again. He hadn’t expected Takeru to get ill suddenly but he understood Hikari’s reluctance to leave him. He couldn’t say he was happy about the turn of events; especially if it turned out there was a lot of work to do but he would never ask her to leave Takeru. Those two had been inseparable for far longer than they’d been dating. “I can handle things myself today.”

He listened to Hikari hum in thought on the other end of the phone, before she said, “I know! I’ll send Tai to go with you.”

Daisuke hoped his squeak had been entirely in his head and not out loud as his hands froze over Chibimon, causing the young digimon to look up in confusion. He had told Jun everything last night and she had convinced him that Tai was no doubt fine with it and to talk to him, but he wasn’t ready. Not yet.

“I don’t want to bother him,” he managed to reply, forcing his vocal chords to obey him, “Honestly, I’ll be fine.”

“You’re not bothering him Daisuke, he’s just lazing around anyway,” she replied, sounding vaguely amused about the fact.

“It’s fine, me and Chibimon can handle everything today,” he replied, hoping Hikari would understand that he really didn’t want Tai to accompany him.

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before Hikari sighed and asked, “What’s going on with you lately Daisuke?”

“I’m fine Hikari,” he replied, knowing he was going to have to come up with a better answer eventually.

“If you say so, but you know you can talk to me or any of the others about anything, right?” she asked, sounding like she really wasn’t sure if he did know that.

Daisuke smiled into the phone; he knew that what she said was true and if it had been anything else that was wrong then he would have spoken to them all about it. He really did trust them. “I know… thanks,” he replied quietly into the phone.

\--

“Take shelter in the cave!” he yelled to the group of 12 Pagumon who were cowering behind him as Flamedramon shot balls of flame towards a Monochromon that had seen the small digimon as a passing snack. The little digimon didn’t need telling twice and bounced straight into the cave. Daisuke turned his attention back to Flamedramon, glad that he didn’t have to worry about the Pagumon at the same time now.

Just before he had left for the digital world earlier, he had gotten a message from Koushiro that there was a group of Pagumon who were requesting an escort through the mountains so they could reach their relatives. Daisuke had thought the small digimon were being overly dramatic but now he understood that they were seen as food by a number of other digimon. This wasn’t their first fight since they set off and Flamedramon was starting to tire. He was starting to think that coming on his own had been a bad idea after all.

The Monochromon shot a blue beam towards Flamedramon who managed to dodge it, but only after catching his leg on it slightly before he shot some more fireballs down at it. The second he landed though, Monochromon barrelled into him, sending him flying back to the mouth of the cave where he quickly devolved back into Veemon. Daisuke ran over to him, so desperate to do something to help that he didn’t notice that Monochromon was already charging for them again.

“Greymon!”

Daisuke’s head snapped up just in time to watch a giant ball of flame hurtle past him and hit the Monochromon so hard that he flew several feet back.

“Daisuke! Are you alright?”

Daisuke looked up to see Tai running towards him, a backpack jumping away on his back as Greymon thumped past them to finish the fight with Monochromon. He knew he should be annoyed that Tai was here when he’d told Hikari that he’d be fine but he was just grateful that someone had showed up to save Veemon.

“I’m fine, but Veemon’s pretty banged up,” he replied, looking guiltily down at his partner and not allowing himself to think of anything else until he knew Veemon would be alright.

Tai pulled the backpack off his back and rummaged around in it for a moment before pulling out a bottle of blue liquid and offering it to Daisuke. “This will perk him right up.”

“Koushiro made it,” he added when he noticed Daisuke’s confused expression. Daisuke nodded, sufficiently placated as he took the bottle and helped sit Veemon up so he could pour the liquid down his throat. He handed the empty bottle back to Tai, who threw it back in the bag and turned to watch Veemon slowly blink his eyes open.

“Why does my mouth taste like feet?” he asked blearily, before his eyes met Daisuke’s, “Did you put your feet in my mouth while I was asleep?”

Daisuke gave a relieved chuckle, pulling his partner into a hug before responding, “Not this time.”

He heard a squeal and looked over to see that the Monochromon was running away, apparently deciding that the snack wasn’t worth the effort. Daisuke gave a relieved sigh and turned to the cave, calling out, “It’s safe now.”

Tai didn’t seem surprised to see the group of Pagumon come out of the cave but Daisuke suspected that he must have spoken to Koushiro beforehand to find out where he was. Greymon joined them and quickly shrank down to Agumon as the Pagumon thanked them all.

They quickly got back on the road, which was a big valley walled in by snowy mountains. The Pagumon said it was the quickest way through the mountain but for how much fighting had happened so far, he was starting to think that it would actually be quicker to go around the mountains. The Pagumon lead the way and Daisuke and Tai stayed at the back with their digimon, keeping their eyes peeled for any potential attackers.

“Hey Daisuke, you know my opinion of you hasn’t changed after what you said yesterday, right?” said Tai, starting a conversation out of the blue.

Daisuke’s stomach flipped unhappily as he looked down the track, unable to turn his head and meet Tai’s gaze. “We don’t need to talk about it.”

“But we do, you seem to think I hate you now or something and I definitely don’t” argued Tai, his voice becoming higher pitched as it always did when he got frustrated.

“Talking can wait until later,” said Daisuke, desperate to not talk before he diverted the conversation, “I think I should stay at the front in case of a sudden attack and you can stay back here to watch behind.”

With that said he sped up, ignoring the frustrated growl from Tai until he and Veemon were in front of the party. He knew he would have to talk to Tai, and really he didn’t know what he was so scared about. He was scared that Tai’s opinion of him had changed but Tai was insisting that that wasn’t the case. But it didn’t change the fact that he knew about his feelings for Ken.

His internal ramblings were cut off suddenly as a large booming noise echoed from above them. Daisuke’s head shot up and he swore as he realised that whatever had caused that noise had rattled the mountain and he could see thick blankets of snow running down the mountain towards them.

“Everyone, back to the cave!” shouted Tai, turning on his heels to head back towards the cave that they had fought in front of a few moments ago. The Pagumon needed no more words as they quickly bounced off after Tai, leaving him and Veemon to bring up the rear.

The rumbling grew louder as the avalanche neared and Daisuke wasn’t sure they were going to make it until he spotted the cave just ahead. Tai stopped at the entrance and turned to make sure that everyone was following. Tai met Daisuke’s gaze and Daisuke gestured for him to get in; he was almost at the mouth of the cave anyway. Tai nodded and turned to go in, just as Daisuke glanced to see that the snow was almost on top of them. Worse than that was the fact that one of the Pagumon seemed to have tripped over just shy of the entrance and had his ear caught on something.

Daisuke glanced down at Veemon, glad of the mental link that was always between them and the two of them grabbed him simultaneously and pulled hard, extracting the Pagumon with a pop. They threw him into the cave and Daisuke was just able to catch the look of fear on Tai’s face unlike anything he’d seen before, before the weight of the world seemed to fall on him and he passed out.

\--

Cold; that was all he could feel. It felt like he had been frozen in a block of ice and he couldn’t warm up no matter what he tried. His senses were dulled and it was like he was in a bubble and everything was happening outside the bubble. He could hear something…was it his name? Who was calling him? He tried to open his eyes but his body wouldn’t co-operate; he was too cold to move more than the millimetres his body was using to shiver. And so, he stayed, in his icy bubble, listening wearily to the voice getting closer. Was there more than one? He couldn’t tell.

Suddenly he felt something move by his hand and after a moment he could feel something warm touch his hand and the voice shouted louder. He twitched his hand, the movement almost totally separate from his thought process before he felt movement along his arm. He was being freed from his icy bubble, he was sure of it, even if his brain was too foggy to know exactly what was going on.

Something crumbled around his head and suddenly he was no longer in a bubble as a voice cried out, “Daisuke!”

He still couldn’t find the energy to move and instead just lay there, face down as the voice grabbed hold of his free hand and pulled. After a moment, something gave and he found himself being slid free of his icy prison. He was still cold though, so, so cold.

“Keep looking for Veemon” ordered the voice.

“Right!” replied another voice.

Veemon? Didn’t he know them? That name sounded so familiar but he couldn’t think much beyond the chill in his bones. He felt himself being pulled up so he was sat against the wall, the cold of the wall mixing with the cold in his skin.

“Geez Daisuke, you’re freezing and you’re soaked too, how the hell am I meant to warm you up?” said the voice. It sounded worried. He tried to open his eyes; he wanted to see the voice.

“There’s some sticks and wood in the back here, we could make a fire” said a third voice

“Really? That’s great!” spoke the first voice again, sounding relieved, “Let’s pile them up and then Agumon can light the fire”

The voice moved away, leaving him to shiver away against the wall, desperate to warm up. Geez, why was thinking so difficult? It was like trying to swim in custard. He listened to the voices bustling around before there was a sudden hiss and crackle as the cave seemed to light up behind his eyelids. God, did he want to open his eyes but his body seemed busy grabbing at the tiny waves of warmth that drifted over to him.

Hands grabbed him again and lifted him up, carrying him gently towards the warmth before laying him down and walking away again. He heard scrabbling and what sounded like another body being pulled out of the snow. The warmth was starting to wash over him and he was finding it easier to think already. It was Veemon they were pulling out of the snow, even if his brain couldn’t quite comprehend who that was. He was still cold all the way to his bones.

“Put Chibimon by the fire” said the first voice, “I’ll see if I can call someone”

With that the first voice walked away and he lost the sound to the crackle and hiss of the fire in front of him. He was warming up but so slowly and it didn’t help the way that the clothes clung damply against his skin, keeping it cool.

He heard the first voice again, only because it was shouting now. “I don’t care if you have an exam, what part of we’re trapped in a cave and Daisuke is going to die of hypothermia do you not get?!”

With that the voice quietened again and Daisuke found himself feeling sleepy but some deep part of him knew that he shouldn’t. Instead he forced his eyes open and found himself staring at the fire not far in front of him. He watched the flames dance on the sticks, too tired to do anything but watch the mesmerising patterns they made. His efforts were futile though and after a few moments, he fell into a deep sleep.

\--

Daisuke woke to the sound of a crackling fire and a calm rhythmic beating by his ear and found that he was a lot warmer now. Whatever he was leaning on was keeping him warm and he slowly opened his eyes, giving a tiny groan as he did so. Just as he made a noise, the beating sped up a little and he felt something move against his back.

“Daisuke? Are you awake?”

Daisuke blinked wearily and tilted his head up to look towards the voice. He met Tai’s chocolate brown eyes that were flickering in the firelight from behind. Tai’s brow was furrowed but he had the slightest smile on his face; a mixture of worry and relief.

“Tai?” he asked, still feeling a bit confused, but significantly less than before, “What happened?”

“You were caught by the avalanche” replied Tai and Daisuke felt something tighten around him. He became slowly aware that Tai had his arms wrapped around him, and he was vaguely aware that this would normally be embarrassing but right now it didn’t feel that way. Maybe it was because Tai’s skin felt like a furnace and it was rapidly warming him up.

“We dug you out and then made a fire and then I sent an SOS to the others so hopefully they’ll be here to dig us out soon”

“Where…?” he began but Tai knew what he was going to ask and he nodded towards the fire. Daisuke turned to see Chibimon curled up by the fire, Agumon sitting next to him. He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like a weight had been lifted off his chest to know that his partner was alright. That was when he noticed that there were sticks around the fire and they were holding clothes to dry…his clothes…and Tai’s shirt. It was at that point that he realised he and Tai were cuddled up in a blanket mostly naked…and on top of that, he was sitting in Tai’s lap. A furious blush rose onto his face, his brain finally catching up with the situation.

Tai must have felt the way his body stiffened self-consciously because he felt Tai’s hands loosen slightly around his back. He tried to ignore the way his skin tingled at the unfamiliar touch as Tai asked “What’s wrong?”

“Uh…um…” he stuttered, knowing Tai’s eyes were on him, even if Daisuke wasn’t meeting his gaze, “Why am I…? Why are we…?” He stopped, unable to finish the sentence as his body suddenly seemed to overheat in embarrassment.

He felt Tai chuckle against him, finally understanding what Daisuke was worried about before he tightened his hold against Daisuke and pulled the younger boy against his chest once more. “You were frozen and soaking when I pulled you out and when I spoke to Joe he said I needed to get you out of the wet clothes and he suggested sharing body heat to warm you up. I was lucky that Hikari made me bring the emergency backpack since it had a blanket in.”

“Oh,” he replied dumbly, still not quite sure what to do with himself since Tai had wrapped himself around Daisuke in an effective cocoon. He did feel a lot warmer thanks to Tai, so he knew he couldn’t complain. He and Chibimon would be in a tough situation if Tai hadn’t shown up. He knew he owed Tai. Big time. “Thanks…”

He felt Tai give an amused huff next to him and they were silent for a few moments before Tai spoke, this time sounding more serious.

“So now that we’ve got nowhere to go for a while, let’s have that talk.”

Daisuke still didn’t want to have that talk but if nothing else, this was all proving that he really wouldn’t treat him any differently. If Tai was worried about possible affections from Daisuke then surely he wouldn’t have put himself in this situation. “Alright…” he replied eventually.

“Firstly, I’m sorry that I cornered you and forced you to tell me what was going on…if I’d known it was so personal I might not have pushed so much,” he explained, his fingers twitching against Daisuke’s back, “And I want you to know that I would never treat you any differently, because I don’t think about you any differently, honestly.”

Daisuke gave a small hum to acknowledge what Tai had said, even though he had already proved himself with that.

“And I understand now why you were so distracted at the match; heartbreak is a bitch,” he muttered quietly, giving a sigh that ruffled through the hair on the top of Daisuke’s head. Daisuke knew he should have been thinking about Ken at that moment but the closeness with Tai seemed to be burning away at his brain cells and he looked longingly at his clothes by the fire.

“I…I wonder if the clothes are dry yet…” he said, wanting to slap himself in the face for being so obvious.

Tai humoured him though and quietly called over, “Agumon, are the clothes dry yet?”

They waited for a few moments as Agumon checked the clothes before he replied, “Nope, not yet.”

“O…okay,” replied Daisuke and Tai gave another chuckle behind him.

“I know this may not be the best moment but since you told me something personal, I think I should tell you something,” he began, hesitating for a split second before he explained, “I am…uh…I’m actually bisexual.”

Daisuke blinked for a moment before he tilted his head up to see Tai blushing ever so slightly and averting his gaze. “Really?” he asked, suddenly feeling like someone understood him a little.

Tai nodded awkwardly, the blush still there as he replied, “I went out with a guy on my football team last year.”

“You never told us,” replied Daisuke, not being able to think of anything that would have tipped him off. He’d had a girlfriend before but only for a few months before they broke up.

“He didn’t want to make it public because his family is ultra-religious, so I never told anyone,” he replied, a faraway look in his eyes, “I would have told you guys eventually but it didn’t work out so…”

“What happened?” he asked, feeling a tug in his heart for the pain Tai must have gone through. He had never been in a relationship but he couldn’t guess at how much it must hurt to pour yourself into a relationship that doesn’t work out.

“He moved back to America. We tried long distance for a while but…it just wasn’t going to work so we decided to end it,” replied Tai, giving a sigh before he finally looked down at Daisuke and said, “I still miss him but…sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want them to, even if you try your best.”

But that wasn’t fair…not for Tai. He was too good of a person to get his heart broken like that. “Then it just means there’s someone out there even better for you Tai, someone perfect for you.”

Tai raised his eyebrow, a fond amused smile on his lips as he asked, “Oh, really?”

“Yeah!” replied Daisuke, a newfound determination in his veins to make sure Tai understood that good things would definitely be in his future, “You’re kind and brave and patient and strong and a great leader. The world definitely has good things planned for you, I just know it!”

Suddenly there was a loud boom by the cave entrance and Daisuke jolted up and out of Tai’s lap, the cold instantly washing over him now that he was no longer in the blanket. “What was that?”

Daisuke turned to see Tai stand up, a strangely unreadable expression on his face before he replied, “That’s probably our escort out of here”

Daisuke darted over to his clothes but they were still wet and still cold. He gave a slight curse and jumped when suddenly the blanket was draped around him by Tai.

“Don’t let yourself get cold again” he murmured quietly as Agumon handed him his shirt. Daisuke watched as Tai slipped the shirt over his head and saw that it was just as wet as his clothes were. He was about to protest when there was another bang outside and Chibimon gave a yawn by his feet.

“Who’s making all that noise?” he groaned, rubbing at his eyes, “I was having a great dream about grilled squid.”

He smiled down at his partner, glad to see that he was perfectly fine and watched as Tai walked over to the Pagumon, who had been shaken awake by the bangs, and exchanged a quick few words.

Another boom quickly followed, but this one blasted some snow inside, some of which landed on the fire, and extinguished it, leaving them back in total darkness.

“They don’t realise how close they are,” growled Tai, suddenly closer, before he shouted as loud as he could, “Be careful guys!”

It soon became clear that they hadn’t heard when there was another loud bang and more snow shot into the cave. There was the sound of movement and suddenly Daisuke found himself with his face against Tai’s wet chest as the older boy tried to shield him from the snow.

“I’m fine Tai,” he insisted, trying to ignore the arms wrapped around him.

“I’ll be the judge of that” was Tai’s reply before he said, “Everyone, stay against the wall where you can’t get pushed back”

There was a chorus of agreement from the Pagumon and Tai loosened one of his arms from around Daisuke so they could move. The sound of Chibimon’s paws followed them to the wall just before there was another boom. Daisuke suddenly found himself with his back pressed against the wall and Tai pressed against him. Was he really that worried that he would be hurt again? He was made of stronger stuff than that.

“Tai, really, I’m fine, you don’t have to protect me, I’m not a little kid anymore,” he replied, desperate to prove himself as more competent than he had acted recently. He sensed Tai looking down at him even in the dark and looked up to meet a gaze that he couldn’t really see.

They stayed in silence for a few more moments before Tai replied, “I know you’re not,” and backed up, just in time for a final bang to radiate around the cave as the snow at the entrance cracked open. Light spilled in and Daisuke had to blink several times before he could see properly, at which point Tai had moved away and over to the snowy remains of the fire where he plucked Daisuke’s clothes off the sticks.

“Daisuke!”

Daisuke’s heart sped up and he snapped his head around at the sound of Ken’s voice echoing into the cave. He spied Ken and Miyako at the snowy entrance to the cave, looking in worriedly. Hikari and Izzi weren’t far behind them. Ken spied him and immediately jumped over the remaining snow pile to run to him.

“Ken, I’m fine, really I…” he was interrupted when Ken collided with him, wrapping his arms around Daisuke in a big hug. Daisuke would have done the same but his arms were trapped inside the blanket covering him.

“You idiot, do you know how worried we all were!?” he exclaimed right into Daisuke’s ear, leaving Daisuke feeling sure that his heart would explode in happiness, “You got buried in an avalanche! If Tai hadn’t been there, then you’d be a goner!”

Daisuke was going to argue and point out that everything would have been fine but the way that Ken was shaking against him and the look of worry on Miyako and Hikari’s faces as they watched him convinced him not to belittle everything. Instead he quietly replied, “Yeah, I know…”

“We’re not doing trips with only one person again,” explained Izzi from where he was standing next to a very serious looking Tai.

“Right,” he replied quietly, wishing he didn’t feel as useless as he did right now, “I’m really sorry guys…”

“No Daisuke, we’re sorry,” said Ken as he finally released Daisuke and stood back to look into his eyes, making Daisuke’s heart pound away, “We shouldn’t have left you on your own.”

“I should have told my family that Saturday was just no good,” admitted Miyako, “I was just too excited…I’m sorry.”

“And I should have come with you anyway,” admitted Hikari, before Daisuke had a chance to reply to Miyako, “Just because he’s sick, doesn’t mean I should have left you…”

Daisuke almost couldn’t believe how sombre they were being and felt desperate to clear the air so he gave one of his signature grins and said, “Don’t be stupid guys, you had love on your minds and everyone knows love makes you crazy.”

With that said he laughed, already feeling better himself and he watched as Ken, Miyako and Hikari’s faces eased into small smiles. He glanced over to see Izzi rolling his eyes but Tai wasn’t looking at him; It was almost like he was avoiding his gaze. Was he angry at him for saying he didn’t need protecting? Maybe he had seemed ungrateful for everything Tai had done but that wasn’t the case. He didn’t want Tai to think he didn’t appreciate how much he had looked after him.

“Tai” he spoke up, his mouth moving before his brain had a chance to catch up. Tai finally looked over at him, not looking angry like he had expected but instead he looked…a little upset. It startled Daisuke enough to make him hesitate but he bowed as low as he could without getting down on the floor and spoke, “Thank you so much for helping me today Tai; without you I’d be in a world of trouble.”

“You don’t need to thank me, we’re friends,” replied Tai and Daisuke shot up to see Tai looking at him with a smile. Daisuke smiled widely and felt happiness roll through him; he knew that they were friends but it was good to hear sometimes. Daisuke had always looked up to the older boy and to know that they were truly friends and not just fellow digidestined felt like a great privilege

\--

Ken had taken Daisuke home, and Daisuke hated how Ken’s concern still made him tingle as he steered Daisuke into his room before moving back outside to let Daisuke get changed in private. Daisuke felt his cheeks warm and slowly pulled some clothes on, wanting to put off the inevitable for as long as he could. It was clear that Ken wanted to talk from the fact that he had insisted on taking Daisuke back by himself, despite his earlier insistence on waiting.

Daisuke didn’t blame Ken for it; not at all. He was acting weird lately and Ken was worried. He gave a sigh, wondering if he should just bite the bullet and tell Ken the truth, after all, Tai had been more than okay with it so why wouldn’t Ken? And regardless of anything else, Ken was his best friend and they didn’t keep secrets from each other. Did he really think so little of Ken that he thought he would treat Daisuke differently?

He pulled his goggles off his head and held them in his hand, drawing the strength he needed from them. He took a deep breath, gathering his resolve before he spoke up, “I’m done.”

Ken pushed the door open, letting Chibimon and Minomon run in before he followed in, closing the door carefully behind him. He turned to face Daisuke and his eyes widened, presumably from seeing the look of determination on Daisuke’s face.

“It’s time I told you the truth,” he said, sitting down on the bed and gesturing for Ken to join him.

Ken nodded, his brow furrowed, and sat down next to Daisuke on the bed. Daisuke felt nervous, his heart pounding away in his chest and he tightened his grip on his goggles. He stared at a spot on the wall so he didn’t have to look at Ken when he told him before he opened his mouth and began quietly, “I didn’t tell you before because…I was scared that you might hate me…”

“I would never hate you,” exclaimed Ken suddenly from next to him, “No matter what.”

Daisuke nodded but still didn’t meet his gaze and took a deep breath before spitting it out, “The truth is that…I’m gay”

There was silence for a moment and Daisuke tried not to let the panic overwhelm him as the moment seemed to stretch on forever before Ken eventually spoke.

“Is that it?” he asked quietly, as though he’d said something as inconsequential as someone had changed their haircut.

Daisuke snapped his head towards Ken and met his gaze, unable to avoid his frustrated reply of, “What do you mean is that it?!”

Ken seemed to realise his mistake and held out his hands placating, an awkward smile on his face as he clarified, “I just meant that, you really thought something like that would make me hate you?”

Daisuke turned back to stare at the wall, colour filling his cheeks as he mumbled, “I guess I just thought…I mean some people…I just…”

He didn’t get to finish his attempted reply because suddenly he felt Ken place his hand on top of Daisuke’s own and his heart suddenly felt like it would burst out of his chest.

“Daisuke, it doesn’t matter to me whether you like guys or girls,” he explained, his voice soft and his hand warm, “That doesn’t change who you are and who you are is one of the most important people in the world to me.”

Ken left the statement to hang in the air and suddenly Daisuke felt like such an idiot for thinking that Ken would treat him any differently. Maybe he should have told Ken a long time ago, who knows, maybe if he’d confessed to Ken, he might even have come to love him in return. Even if it was too late though, he needed to tell Ken the whole truth.

“There’s something else,” he explained, wondering if his sudden rush of courage had resulted from the inordinate amount of time spent keeping his feelings bottled up.

“I figured there had to be more from your reaction earlier,” replied Ken, squeezing his hand lightly. Daisuke glanced over to see Chibimon and Minomon watching the conversation with rapt attention and forced himself to look at Ken.

“I have a crush…on…y…” he stopped suddenly as he looked into Ken’s eyes, his brain seemed to freeze in a blind panic at the reality of what he was about to say. It wasn’t like it was when he told Tai; after all, it wasn’t Tai he had a crush on, it was Ken. “Y…” he tried again but his tongue refused to get the words out and just like that all of his courage jumped out of the window, leaving him with no options left. Ken would absolutely treat him differently; who was he kidding?

“Y…?” prompted Ken gently, giving his hand a small encouraging squeeze

He had to think of something; he couldn’t tell Ken the truth. He had to think of a name, any name. It didn’t matter at this point. But as at all points in his life, his mouth moved before his brain had a chance to vet the words and he spat out, “Yagami Taichi…” Ah crap…why did it have to be that name. He would get called out on it for sure; there was no way that Ken would think he was telling the truth.

“That explains so much,” replied Ken, his voice tinged with amusement.

Daisuke felt his face heat up as he turned to look at Ken once more and squawked out, “Wha…what do you mean by that?”

“You mean apart from the fact that the goggles he gave you are your most precious possession and you’re clutching them like they are the only thing keeping you alive?” he replied, a twinkle in his eyes and his lips pursed in a teasing smile.

Daisuke loosened his hold on the goggles and attempted to defend himself “They’re not…Okay they are but…I’m not…”

Ken laughed as Daisuke trailed off, leaving him sure that his own cheeks were the colour of tomatoes right now. He couldn’t defend against Ken’s suggestions because he was meant to be letting Ken think what he said was true. But he couldn’t help but find it embarrassing that Ken had no qualms with it at all.

“And that’s why you’ve been acting weird lately?” asked Ken, all teasing gone as his concerned expression returned.

Daisuke nodded awkwardly, looking back down at the ground now, “I’m sorry Ken.”

“You don’t have to apologise to me Daisuke,” replied Ken before suggesting, “Just maybe talk to me next time so I’m not getting sick with worry.”

Daisuke nodded, smiling awkwardly as he replied, “Yeah, sorry, I’ll do that.”

Daisuke glanced over at his oddly quiet digimon and noticed the look of confusion of Chibimon’s face right away. He gave a minute shake of his head, praying that Chibimon would be smart enough not to question anything when Ken was around. Chibimon must have noticed because he gave a resolute nod and turned to Minomon to start chattering away about nothing in particular. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding before he turned back to Ken whose hand was still over his. The heat radiated from Ken’s palm and Daisuke found himself wishing that it would never move from his.

“So…what are you going to do?” asked Ken, his lips pursed in thought. Daisuke brows drew together and Ken clarified his question, “About Tai?”

Daisuke flushed and looked away from Ken, unable to believe he lied but unwilling to fix it. “I’m not sure” he replied, thinking of the older boy. Maybe things would be easier if he had a crush on Tai; at least Tai was out of his reach so surely he wouldn’t have half the problems.

“Are you going to tell him?” asked Ken, interrupting his thought process, and Daisuke resolutely shook his head. He didn’t have feelings for the older boy. It wasn’t that he wasn’t attractive, because Daisuke had known for longer than he had known he was gay that Tai was very good looking. He remembered the way his skin had tingled under Tai’s touch and knew that it wasn’t an impossibility but his feelings for Ken were too strong and he’d had them for a long time. He didn’t want a crush on Tai any more than he wanted to stay in love with Ken.

“I don’t want to lose him as a friend so I’d rather not tell him,” he replied after a moment, wishing, not for the first time, that he could just make his feelings disappear.

“You wouldn’t lose him,” replied Ken, “I’m sure of it, he’s not that type of person.”

Daisuke pursed his lips, wondering if Ken would be saying the same thing if he knew the truth and shook his head. “I’d rather keep it all a secret.”

Daisuke turned to see Ken nod determinedly and reply, “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

“Thanks,” he replied, looking at Ken with a sad smile.

“You don’t have to thank me, you’re my best friend,” reminded Ken, giving his hand another squeeze. Daisuke did his best to smile back, even though that sentence wasn’t the thing he wanted to hear at that point.


	3. Tag Teams

“The coach is in the hospital right now, and they don’t think he’ll be released for a while,” explained Minako, the team manager on Monday during their break. Daisuke and Ken glanced worriedly at each other, having wondered why the coach wasn’t at their morning practice like he usually was.

“What happened to him?” asked Daisuke, hoping that he wasn’t too hurt. Their coach was great and he didn’t want him to miss out on the national tournament that would be starting soon.

“From what I was told, he was in a bad car accident and he broke his back,” she replied and Daisuke heard Ken gasp next to him, “He’s going to get surgery on it but it will still take at least a month of rehabilitation before he can be release, and even then he’ll be having trouble walking.”

“That’s terrible,” he replied, already wondering if the team could put together something to take him in the hospital.

Minako nodded, her lips pursed in a way that they always did when she was worried before she shook her head and replied, “Anyway, I was told to come and tell you that the coach has spoken to the principal and because you guys have nationals coming up soon, he didn’t want you to be without a coach. So they’ve organised it so that until they can find a replacement coach or until the coach gets released, we’ll be having joint practice sessions with the Senior High Team.”

Daisuke couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face; he would get to train with Tai and the older team. That would help them improve their skills immensely in time for the nationals and then there was no way they would lose. He glanced over at Ken and immediately dropped his grin; Ken was looking at him with a tiny smile and it was clear that he thought he knew what Daisuke was thinking about. He thought Daisuke was happy because of his ‘feelings’ for Tai and there was no way he would be able to convince him otherwise. He really hoped Ken didn’t make things obvious or he’d be in serious trouble.

“We need to meet the coach at the Senior school entrance after school and he’s going to show us where we need to meet every day,” explained Minako, “I’m trying to get hold of everyone to tell them but could you let Sunakawa and Natsu know, since they’re in your class?”

“Sure,” replied Ken and Daisuke nodded as well. Minako gave a grateful smile, likely run off her feet from trying to find everyone and thanked them before heading off to find the others.

As soon as she had rounded a corner he could feel Ken staring at him and he turned to see Ken grinning away at him. Daisuke frowned at him, “Stop doing that, you’re freaking me out.”

\--

It seemed the older team had already changed because when Coach Haibara led the younger team to the changing rooms to get ready, they were empty of people, instead just littered with uniforms and bags.

“Just find a space and get ready and when you’re done, the field is that way,” explained the coach, pointing at a door in the changing room. He paused for a moment and grinned, “Quick as you can; we’ve got a lot of work to do to get you guys ready for nationals.”

With that, he turned and left and the team dispersed to find spare spaces to dump their bags. Daisuke spotted Tai’s bag with ease but purposefully picked a space away from it so that Ken wouldn’t have a reason to tease him. To his surprise, Ken took the space closest to the bag and turned to give him an apologetic half smile and Daisuke felt immediately relieved. That was Ken’s way of apologising for the teasing and he smiled back before they quickly began to change.

“Can you believe the coach?” complained Masaki, loudly enough for the others to hear, “Telling us we still have a ways to go to be good enough for nationals when the senior high team didn’t even get in to the nationals.”

Daisuke instantly frowned; he had been at the match that they had lost and it had been against the winners of last year’s nationals. It was an amazing game and Tai’s team had fought hard but in the end they had lost by one goal. It had nothing to do with their skill; they were undoubtedly better than them.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch Masaki” he growled, feeling strangely protective of the older team, “Just because they didn’t get in this year, doesn’t mean they aren’t better than us, because I promise you they are better than us.”

“So is that what you really think of us?” exclaimed Masaki, always quick to anger, especially where it seemed like someone was questioning his skills.

“Of course not dumbass,” he replied, pulling his shirt on and trying to keep a level head despite his inclination to deck the overconfident striker, “I’m just telling you not to disrespect them just because of this year’s regionals.”

Masaki gave a growl, obviously looking for a fight but Sunakawa suddenly appeared behind him and put a hand firmly on his shoulder. It seemed to snap the hot headed boy out of it and he gave a, “Hmmph,” before he turned to finish getting changed.

Daisuke let loose a sigh and quickly finished changing. He knew that Masaki didn’t represent the whole team’s opinions; he was the outlier who was just overconfident in his skills on the field, but he hoped that everyone was going to be respectful to the older team.

He waited until everyone had finished changing before he led everyone through the door. He followed the corridor along and came to another door that clearly led to the pitch. He opened it and Coach Haibara was there waiting for them.

“You took your time; you’ll need to be quicker than that in the morning,” he explained before he gestured to the senior team who were grouped up and waiting for them with Tai standing right at the front with a welcoming smile, “Come through, we don’t have time for long winded introductions so we’ll just have the Captains and Vice-captain’s introduce themselves and everyone will just have to introduce as you train.”

Daisuke hurried forward, his team flanking behind him to get out on the pitch and stood in front of Tai with a well-hidden grin. Tai’s eyes seemed to sparkle slightly too despite the polite demeanour they needed to have for now. He gave a cursory glance over the team before he spoke, “My name is Yagami Taichi and I am the captain of the Odaiba Senior High team, I look forward to working with you.”

With that Tai gave a bow and the boy next to him with short black hair gave a bow as well before standing up and introducing himself, “My name is Ikebana Riku and I am the Vice-captain”

Tai nodded at his vice-captain and turned to Daisuke expectantly. Daisuke grinned and glanced at the other members of the senior team, several of whom he recognised from the games he had gone to see. “My name is Montomiya Daisuke and I am the captain of the Odaiba Junior High team.”

He bowed and loudly exclaimed, “It is an honour to practice with you.”

He heard some polite laughter from the senior team before he stood back up and glanced over to see Ken coolly introduce himself, “My name is Ichijouji Ken and I am the vice-captain.” He gave a slight bow and glanced back at the team who all quickly took his lead and gave a small bow to their seniors.

“Right, let’s get some practicing done,” shouted the coach from the side-lines, where he was standing next to Minako and another boy who Daisuke presumed was the manager of the senior high team. “Everybody needs to do ten laps of the pitch and whoever comes last can do another ten.”

“Wait, what?” said one of his team mates but the senior team had already started moving. All except for Tai who stood there with a grin and said, “He’s not kidding you know, I’d get a move on,” before he began to run after his team. Daisuke quickly started to run after him, Ken at his side and several of the team did their best to run past him and catch up with the older team, desperate not to have to run more laps.

Daisuke wasn’t too worried and kept at a comfortable speed, glancing behind to make sure no-one was getting too left behind. Thankfully everyone was packed pretty tightly together since they’d only just started but he knew that it wouldn’t stay that way.

To the junior team’s credit, it took five laps before anyone started to slow down and in that time Tai had slowed down a little and was running alongside him and Ken, but he knew that wasn’t from getting tired but for comradery. The gap between the senior and junior high team grew from that point on and it was clear that this wasn’t an unusual warm up for the team. He frowned between puffs of breath and realised he needed to work on his team’s stamina.

“Don’t worry, they’ll get it eventually,” puffed Tai from next to him and he realised that Tai had been reading his mind. He shouldn’t be surprised considering Tai was the captain of his own team so of course he would think similarly.

“Yeah,” replied Daisuke, not wanting to admit that after seven laps he was starting to get tired himself. He wondered if jogging after practice would help.

He pushed on and forced his body to keep going as the entered the last lap before he realised that someone would have to do more laps. He glanced over his shoulder to see that it was Sanui who was lagging at the back, looking like he could collapse any moment. Sanui was a first year and he wasn’t the most talented at sports but he had a lot of passion and always tried his best, supporting the team even if he wasn’t good enough to play in the matches yet. Daisuke mentally swore; if Sanui had to do another ten laps there was no way he would make it without collapsing and he couldn’t let that happen.

As they neared the end of the lap, he forced himself to slow right down so everyone could run past him. Tai and Ken glanced over their shoulders to see where he went but they both seemed to understand what he was doing. Ken nodded and turned to keep running, having learnt a long time ago that he had good instincts when it came to doing the best for his team. Tai raised an eyebrow and Daisuke could see him go to slow down but he shook his head slightly. Tai grimaced slightly, as though he didn’t like it but turned and carried on running anyway, much to Daisuke’s relief.

The rest of the team didn’t glance at him for more than a moment, already knowing that Sanui was at the back and after a bit more slowing down he fell in line with him.

“H..Hey…captain” he puffed out, his face bright red and sweat running down his face.

“Less talking, more running,” he replied, hating the way his muscles protested at both having to slow down to keep his pace and at the way he still had to keep going. “You can do this Sanui.”

Sanui grunted and Daisuke watched proudly as he forced himself to keep moving. He looked ahead to see the ending line in sight with all of the older team having finished, bar Tai who had slowed down to keep pace with them. Within moments the frontrunners of the junior team finished, quickly followed by Tai and Ken and within moments the line was right ahead of them. Daisuke forced his protesting legs to slow down even more, letting Sanui cross the line first and following seconds later.

Daisuke stopped and watched as Sanui fell on his hands and knees on the floor, coughing in exhaustion. Daisuke himself was puffing away but he was proud of their most inexperienced member.

“That was good of you Montomiya but we don’t give points for heroism. Go do another ten laps,” announced Coach Haibara from where he was standing by the water cooler. His face didn’t suggest he was being unkind, it was just the way things were done and he wouldn’t have expected otherwise. He had already made his decision with the understanding that he would have to run again.

“Yes Coach,” he replied loudly and took off on protesting legs to start the rest of his laps. He watched the coach separate the teams before they all began to do their warm up stretches. He saw Tai and Ken glance his way several times as if to check he was okay and he did his best to smile back every time but by lap seven, or lap seventeen as he preferred to think of it, his legs were starting to feel like lead and his lungs were starting to feel like ‘on fire’ was their default setting. If he didn’t stop then he didn’t want to think about what might happen. Surely it would be fine to pause for a moment and catch his breath. He had to do the laps but it wasn’t like he was being timed.

He allowed himself to stop for a moment, leaning over to rest his hands on his knees as he sucked in giant lungful’s of air. He hated how unfit he was being proven to be; he had always thought that he was pretty fit from the football training but it was being made clear that their regime wasn’t tough enough and that they needed to step up their training if they wanted to win nationals. He glanced over to see Ken looking worriedly over at him and he forced himself back up and into motion again.

He tried to ignore everything but the way his feet pounded against the ground and he found that eventually there was a hand that appeared on his arm, bringing him to a stop. He turned to see Tai smile at him with a shake of his head.

“You really got into the zone there, huh? You’ve done all your laps” he explained and let go of his arm before offering a cup of water to him. Daisuke grabbed the cup gratefully and chugged it down in between gulping breaths, which inevitably lead to a coughing fit.

Tai slapped his back and Daisuke wiped his mouth, feeling better despite making an ass of himself. He looked up to Tai and admitted, “I’m way more unfit that I thought.”

“Nah,” replied Tai with a grin, “The coach is just a slave driver, but you have a few minutes to catch your breath since he sent me over to get you to warm up before we join them.”

Daisuke glanced over to see that the rest of the team were doing some passing and shooting exercises and nodded before turning back to Tai, “Let’s go.”

They quickly stretched and joined the others and the rest of the session went pretty quickly, but near the end of the session the Coach decided to address Daisuke’s earlier concern in regards to Masaki’s attitude.

“I’ve heard a little grumbling from someone in the younger team about how they think their team is better.” Daisuke immediately glared over at Masaki, unable to believe that he had embarrassed the younger team that way. Coach Haibara continued, “So to straighten everything out, I thought we should have a friendly game between the teams.”

Daisuke watched Masaki smirk amidst the chattering from the players. He just felt ashamed that his team would be thought of as arrogant just because of Masaki. He knew his team was good but he had seen how well the older team played and when they were led by Tai they were amazing. It was just bad luck that they had faced an unstoppable team so early in the regionals. Even then, it had been a close match, one that Daisuke had replayed for days afterwards.

Daisuke glanced up at Tai who was next to him and Tai was grinning in a way that he did when he was looking forward to something. When he noticed Daisuke looking he winked at him and Daisuke felt the unease settle as he realised that it would be a fun game no matter what happened.

Most of the teams were standing or sat to the side of the pitch as the starters took their places on the pitch. As the game started, Masaki dived forward for the ball but a boy on the other team with short blond hair, that Daisuke later found out was called Tadaki, moved past him with speed that his team would never be able to rival and before the team could do more than react, he was past the strikers and running into the defence. Masaki turned and went after him, his ego bruised and the defence did their best to stop him but he was able to sweep past them with ease. Daisuke glanced back to see that Tai and the others hadn’t moved and were instead just watching their teammate, as though they knew there was no point moving when they would have to be back in position once he’d scored a goal. He turned back to see that they had guessed right as a moment later, he had scored with even Sunakawa unable to stop him.

“That was ridiculous” muttered Banri, the other striker who hadn’t moved.

Daisuke grinned; this was the team he had watched go toe to toe with last year’s winners and he couldn’t be happier to be training with them. He turned back to Tai, determination burning in his eyes to learn as much from them as he could and Tai smiled down at him, clearly hearing him.

The game continued and they didn’t do much better, even if they did get the rest of the team moving. The older team kept scoring goal after goal, and although Sunakawa was able to save some of the goals, he was still human. Whenever his team managed to get hold of the ball, it wouldn’t make it far down the pitch before it was stolen back or a pass was intercepted. It was crazy how out of their league they were. In a way it frustrated him to know how much further his team needed to go but it excited him to think that when he moved up to the senior school next year, this was going to be his team, even if Tai would have graduated and wouldn’t be a part of it anymore. Fate seemed so cruel to never let them play on the same team.

Daisuke snapped out of his internal monologue to note that Tai had possession of the ball and was racing down the pitch towards the goal. He sprinted towards him, determined to prove that his team wasn’t completely incompetent, even if he wasn’t sure how to do that. But he had done soccer for so long that his body knew all the moves and didn’t have to consult his brain as he dived straight into a sliding tackle. Tai clearly hadn’t been expecting that because the ball shot away easily when Daisuke kicked it and Tai tripped over Daisuke’s outstretched leg and ended up on his hands and knees in the dirt.

Daisuke laughed at the sight and Tai shook his head affectionately before they both turned to see what had happened to the ball. Ken must have read his mind because he was currently in possession of the ball and was haring down the pitch as fast as his legs would take him with Masaki and Banri right behind him. Dasisuke watched with pride as the three strikers worked together to keep the ball away from the defence, using everything they’d learnt in the match so far to make it to the goal. Ken lined himself up for the goal and the team’s goalie dived right before Ken passed it over to Masaki. Daisuke couldn’t believe they had faked him out like that and when the ball hit the back of the goal he gave a loud cheer.

He turned back to Tai to see that he had stood up and was offering Daisuke a hand to help him up. Daisuke took it happily and he was pulled quickly up to his feet.

“That was a pretty impressive tackle there,” said Tai, his hand quickly moving up to ruffle his hair. Daisuke allowed himself to preen under Tai’s praise. Tai always told him things exactly as they were so compliments were always sincere. Tai’s hand rested on his head for a moment longer than usual and Daisuke couldn’t quite work out why that made his heart beat a little faster.

“We’re still way behind your team,” he replied as he heard the whistle blow for the end of the match.

With that Tai gave his hair a last ruffle before he released him and grinned down at him, “We’ve been at it a few years more than you but I think we can steer you in the right direction in time for nationals.”

“It’s only a couple of weeks away,” he replied, wondering how much Tai thought they could learn in that time.

“Practicing morning and after school five days a week and Saturday morning practice too,” he explained with a grin on his face that suggested to Daisuke that they were going to be worked to the bone in those sessions. “And you’ll win the first few matches no problem so there’s plenty of time.”

A wide smile spread on Daisuke’s face to think that Tai had that much faith in him and his team and he nodded as he said, “We’ll do our best.”

With that, his team descended on him and they all celebrated their goal before Coach Haibara got them to warm down and let them finish for the day. Daisuke quite liked Coach Haibara; he was a no nonsense sort of person but he was kind and clearly cared about his team. He was a good man to take on an extra team when their coach; Coach Izumi was incapacitated.

As they wandered into the room to get changed he found himself wondering how Coach Izumi was; he was probably bored sitting in the hospital. Daisuke knew he had a wife to care for him but even so, he was probably missing the company a little. Maybe he should go and visit the coach to see how he was and let them know the team would be fine. Maybe Ken would come with him.

As soon as he finished changing he bounced over to where Ken and Tai were and said, “Hey Ken, I’m going to pop by the hospital and see how Coach Izumi is doing, do you want to come with me?”

Ken frowned a little as he pulled his bag on his shoulder and replied, “You know I would but I already promised Miyako I’d meet her after this.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” he replied, trying not to let his disappointment show, “I’ll let you know how he is.”

“Thanks,” replied Ken before Tai piped up from next to him.

“I’ll come with you; I haven’t seen Coach Izumi since I left junior high and it would be great to give him my respects,” he explained, his eyes softening in nostalgia, before he added, “and I’m sure he wants to know that you guys are in good hands.”

Daisuke nodded happily, secretly glad that he didn’t have to go to the hospital alone. He hated the chemical smells and the sight of all the sick and injured people; it made him want to do something to help even when there was nothing he could do. He wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor, so being inside hospitals made him feel useless. “Thanks Tai, I appreciate it.”

Tai smiled down at him and he smiled back before he looked over to Ken to see his eyes twinkling slightly. His smile instantly transformed into a pout and he wished he had come up with another name the other day. Any other name would have cause less trouble. He tightened his hold on his bag and turned to go, giving a wave to his team as he went. He heard Ken and Tai saying their goodbyes behind him and their footsteps followed as he made his way out of the changing rooms and down the hall, where he was pretty sure the way to the main gate was.

“Uh, Daisuke…” he heard Tai from behind.

He turned to see Tai pointing down a different corridor with an awkward grin on his face. Meanwhile Ken just had an amused smile on his face and Daisuke felt his cheeks heat up as he stomped back over to them. “Yeah, haha, laugh at the guy whose sense of direction sucks.”

This time he followed behind them and it wasn’t long before they ended up at the entrance to the school building where Miyako was stood waiting for them. Her face lit up when she saw Ken and it was hard not to feel envious when Ken’s pace quickened so he could get to her faster. He realised his fists were clenching unconsciously and he stuffed them quickly into his pockets, doing his best to keep his smile on his face.

“Hey you two,” greeted Miyako after she had given Ken a hug, turning to face them with her hand held gently in Ken’s. “How are things?”

“Good, thanks,” he replied and Tai quickly echoed him before Ken gave Miyako’s hand a quick tug, as if to remind her that they weren’t staying for chit chat.

Miyako smiled at him and glanced back to say, “I guess we’ll see you later.”

“I’ll see you guys in the morning,” said Ken distractedly and Daisuke knew that all of Ken’s mind power was currently concentrated on Miyako.

“Yeah, see ya,” he replied quieter than normal. He knew Ken would have picked up on it normally but as he watched Ken walk away hand in hand with Miyako, he didn’t. If he knew anything about those feelings, and he certainly did, then he knew that he wouldn’t be getting Ken’s attention again unless she was out of site.

When they disappeared around a corner, a hand appeared on his shoulder and he looked over to see Tai with a frown on his face. He knew exactly what was wrong and he wanted to make sure he was okay. He had people worrying about him. He was supposed to be stronger than this.

He did his best smile and replied, “It’s cool, let’s get going.”


	4. Falling

When they arrived at the hospital they both just stood at the entrance for a moment. Daisuke still didn’t like going in but he couldn’t imagine how the coach must be feeling so he took a deep breath and turned to look at Tai. He had expected to see Tai looking at him and waiting for him to go in but instead Tai was staring at the door with possibly more apprehension than Daisuke had.

“Uh, Tai…are you alright?” he asked, finding the fact that he wasn’t sort of strange. Tai was all grown up and had all these amazing qualities that Daisuke tried so desperately to emulate and Daisuke could remember less than a handful of times where Tai had seemed unsure.

Daisuke’s words seemed to snap Tai out of it and he turned to him with a smile and said, “Yeah, I was just waiting for you, let’s go.”

Daisuke pursed his lips, noticing that Tai’s smile didn’t extend to his eyes in the way it usually did but he nodded anyway and followed Tai as he walked in. After a few inquiries at the desk they found out which room he was in and made their way up the stairs and along the numerous corridors. There was an eerie silence from Tai and Daisuke desperately wanted to break it but he didn’t know what he could say. He didn’t know what was wrong with Tai for a start and he didn’t want to be insensitive or make things worse. Especially since that seemed to be his speciality.

“So…do you come here often?” He immediately wanted to slap himself. Why was he cursed with a mouth that had a mind of its own? Do you come here often? Really!? Is that the most sensible way to start this conversation?

Tai didn’t stop walking and when he didn’t reply Daisuke felt his heart sink slightly; he had said something insensitive, hadn’t he? After a moment though, Tai finally spoke, “Not for a while, thankfully.”

Daisuke was about to reply but Tai had stopped outside a door and Daisuke realised that this was the coach’s room. He glanced up at Tai who was watching him with a sad smile and realised he really wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on between Tai and hospitals. It would have to wait until he’d seen the coach though. He needed to make sure he was alright.

He knocked on the door and after a moment a voice called through, “Come in.” Daisuke pulled the door open and spotted Coach Izumi on a bed by the window, which was tilted up so that he was in a seated position. He didn’t look like he was dying or in pain…he was alright.

The greying whiskers on his chin stretched at he smiled at them, “How nice to see you boys, I hope everything is okay with the team?”

Daisuke nodded fervently, relief flooding through him as he made his way into the room to stand at his bedside, “Everything is great; we’re going to learn so much from the older team and then we’ll win the nationals, we’ll do it for you coach.”

Coach Izumi’s eyes softened and he replied, “Why are you crying?”

“Eh?” he replied and realised that the coach was right. Tears were dripping down his cheeks and he hurried to wipe them away, feeling embarrassed that he was getting so emotional just because the coach was okay.

He felt a hand rest gently on his shoulder and Tai’s voice spoke across, “He was just really worried about you coach.”

Coach Izumi glanced over to Tai before he looked back at Daisuke and smiled, in a very fatherly way and said, “Now now Daisuke, there’s no need to worry about me, I’ll be back to coaching before you know it.”

“Right,” he replied, wiping the last of his tears away. He was glad that he hadn’t invited the whole team now because he would definitely be teased for a long time over that. He couldn’t help it though; he wore his emotions on his sleeves, for good and for bad.

The coach’s attention turned to Tai and he smiled and said, “I saw your match a few weeks ago; you did really well, it was just rotten luck that you faced them so early in the regionals.”

“Thank you coach,” he replied, “I’m sure the team will do even better next year.”

“Even though you’ll have graduated by then?” asked the coach and Daisuke found his eyes widening slightly. He had never really thought about the fact that Tai would be going off to college next year. He had gotten used to Tai always being around but it just wasn’t plausible when Tai needed a top education if he wanted to go into politics. Even if he stayed around Tokyo, he’d probably have to move out of Odaiba because the commute would be too long. That meant that he wouldn’t see much of Tai at all.

“Even with me gone, the team will get stronger next year,” agreed Tai, his hand tightening on Daisuke’s shoulder and forcing Daisuke back to the conversation, before he let go. “Especially since Daisuke will be part of the team next year, right?”

“Oh, ah, yeah,” he replied, knowing it sounded half-hearted but still not quite able to compute that Tai would be leaving them, “Of course I will.”

The coach smiled and nodded and they continued to make conversation for a while, talking about school and the team and the surgery until Daisuke’s stomach gave a big grumble, announcing to the whole room that he had gotten quite hungry.

The coach gave a bark of laughter and smiled at them, “I’d better let you two go then before your stomach wakes everyone up.”

Daisuke felt himself blush and nodded awkwardly, “Sorry coach.”

“Don’t apologise, it was nice that you came to visit me,” replied the coach, “Make sure you tell everyone to work hard and to be polite to the older team, or it’ll reflect badly on me.”

“No problem coach,” he replied, deciding it was best not to mention Masaki until a later date, “We’ll come by again at some point.”

“Don’t force yourselves,” he insisted, “Concentrate on the team and your schoolwork.”

“Don’t worry coach, I’ll make sure he does,” replied Tai, a hint of amusement in his voice, before they said their final goodbyes and made their way out of the room and back through the corridors. The silence was the same as it had been but this time Daisuke knew it was down to him. His mind was racing with the knowledge that Tai would be leaving next year. He had always known it but it had never really registered before. Tai was a big presence in his life and he wasn’t ready for him to disappear yet. He looked up to Tai and he learnt from him. If he was gone, then who could he look to for guidance?

They made their way out of the hospital and the warm breeze ruffled his hair, shortly before Tai’s hand landed on his head and did the same. “Let’s go get something to eat, my treat,” said Tai, his tone much happier now that they had left the hospital.

Daisuke nodded, happy that they weren’t parting for the night yet; he still wanted to find out what Tai was talking about in the hospital. But really…he just wanted to spend some more time with the older boy, before the time ran out.

They walked for a bit and after poking their head into a few smaller restaurants to see they were full, they ended up deciding to take a table at the local Dennys. They scanned the menu and put in their orders before being left alone…or as alone as one could be in a family restaurant anyway.

“So Daisuke, what’s eating you?” asked Tai as he rested his chin on his hand, and Daisuke once again cursed his inability to hide emotions as he gave a weak smile. He couldn’t tell Tai that he was sad at the thought of him leaving next year; that would be way too embarrassing.

“I was just wondering why you were acting so weird in the hospital,” he said, using the chance to divert the conversation and satiate his curiosity.

Tai’s eyes widened and he pursed his lips in silence for a moment before he gave a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose after I forced you to tell me stuff the other day, I have no right not to be honest with you.”

“Wait,” said Daisuke, not wanting Tai to feel like he was obligated to tell him anything. Daisuke wanted Tai to tell him these things because he trusted him. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to…I mean I want to know but I don’t want you to think that you have no choice.”

They were interrupted for a moment as a waitress put their drinks down before bustling off. Daisuke watched her go to give him something else to look at before he nervously turned back to Tai, but Tai was looking at him with a soft smile.

“I want to tell you Daisuke,” he replied quietly, staring right into his eyes and Daisuke felt his stomach twist strangely. He nodded, hoping the blush wasn’t as obvious on his face as it felt. Tai took a sip of his melon soda before he began to talk. “When I was younger, Kari used to get sick a lot.” Daisuke nodded, remembering Kari mentioning it at some point. “And there was one time when I was meant to be looking after her when she was ill and I made her come outside to play football with me…”

Tai paused for a moment, looking physically pained and Daisuke suddenly felt guilty for making Tai tell him this story, and he was about to tell him it was fine but Tai interrupted him and kept explaining, one fist clenched on the table and the other holding his glass in such a tight grip that Daisuke wondered if it might smash. “She collapsed and had to go to hospital. She was so sick that she almost died and it was all my fault.”

He reached over the table and laid his hand gently on the fist that was clenched on the table. Tai’s eyes finally looked up from the table and he looked away, a slight blush on his face. “Sorry…” he muttered, relaxing his fists.

“Don’t apologise,” he whispered, suddenly glad of his habit of acting first and thinking later since it seemed to have calmed him down. He was a bit surprised to hear Tai say what he had said; in his mind Tai was the perfect guy who never did anything wrong. It was strange to hear that Tai had done such a thing, even if it was when he was younger. He pictured the younger Tai in his mind, the one from the photos that the family had around the house, and imagined him standing in a hospital and feeling such a strong feeling of self-blame. He wanted to stand in front of him and protect him and tell him that it wasn’t his fault; he was just a kid who didn’t know any better.

Daisuke forced himself to look at the older Tai sitting across the table right now and smiled gently. He might have been older but surely he was still that little boy who made mistakes, just as everyone was. Just as Daisuke was. Hell, all he ever seemed to do was make mistakes. Tai wasn’t perfect and Daisuke needed to understand that if he really wanted to be his friend and not just his underclassman.

“Jun locked me in a cupboard and forgot about me once. I spent nearly a whole day in there before she remembered. I’ve been scared of small spaces ever since.” Tai blinked in slight confusion at the sudden topic change before he quirked his eyebrow.

“You’re claustrophobic?” he asked, his hand unfurling even more under Daisuke’s as he relaxed.

“Sort of,” he replied with a grin, “It’s pretty closet specific or if it’s a place that small or something.”

“That’s so weird,” replied Tai with a barely concealed grin, “I had no idea.”

“What can I say? I’m a man of many mysteries,” he replied with a grin which only widened when Tai chuckled, his face fully relaxing. Daisuke might not know what to say in serious situations and he might not know how to comfort people but if there was one thing he could do, it was to make them laugh and forget their troubles for a moment.

The waitress brought over their main courses and Daisuke quickly pulled back his hand, hoping Tai hadn’t felt awkward with his actions. He just didn’t tend to think, he couldn’t help it. Daisuke glanced through the arms of the waitress as she put down the plates of hamburger steak to see what Tai’s expression was but he didn’t seem worried. If anything, he seemed more relaxed than when they came in so he allowed himself to smile and as soon as the plates were down they dug into their meals.

The rest of the meal was spent talking about the training and the team and the matches and how they were getting along. It seemed that Tai really thought his team had potential and it seemed like he was making it his personal goal to get them to improve before the nationals started in two weeks’ time. He really wanted them to win the nationals and not just for their team, but also for Coach Izumi and for Tai and the older team too whose training was being interrupted by a bunch of obnoxious junior high kids. They really did owe them a lot and Daisuke was going to make it his personal mission to get Masaki to be respectful to them by the time the coach was well again.

Tai paid as he promised, despite Daisuke’s insistence that he could pay for himself and the two headed off towards their homes. They only lived about a five minute walk away from each other so Tai suggested they head to morning practice together in the morning. Daisuke happily agreed, even with the fact that he had trouble getting up in the mornings; he was hoping that this would act as a deterrent for sleeping through his alarm.

It didn’t.

In fact, the thing he woke up to the next morning was his door slamming open and Tai’s voice loudly proclaiming, “Get up Daisuke or I’m dragging you to practice in your pyjamas.”

He yawned, hearing Chibimon sleepily greet Tai before he rolled over and pulled his duvet over his head. It was too early for this.

Suddenly his duvet was pulled away and the cool air of his room hit his bare chest, making him groan. He heard Tai sigh and say, “Daisuke, seriously, if you’re not up in five minutes then I’m leaving without you and I don’t think Coach Haibara will take you being late very well…in fact, he might get you to do twenty laps again.”

Daisuke sat up suddenly, wiping his eyes as he stared blearily at Tai, “No, I’m up.” Tai raised his eyebrows but nodded and within ten minutes he was up and ready for school.

That was how their days started to go. Daisuke would sleep through his alarm and Tai would come and get him up. They would go to morning practice together before going to their classes. Then they would come back together for after school practice before walking home together. Some days they would go and visit the coach in the hospital and as they walked they would chat about all sorts of things; the digimon, football, their friends and their classes. Daisuke actually found himself looking forward to the end of practice so he could hang out with Tai, instead of dreading it, because he saw Ken and Miyako together, like he had before.

Just like that, the two weeks before their first national match flew by and Daisuke couldn’t believe how much they had improved as a team in past two weeks as they ran circles around the other team. Okay…maybe they didn’t run circles around them but Daisuke could easily see that they were working better as a team and it pleased him greatly.

The ended up winning the first match by two goals and after Ken gave him a high five, he found himself searching for Tai in the stands. When he spotted him, Tai was grinning at him from next to the other younger digidestined and gave him a thumbs up. Daisuke felt his grin grow even more before he was suddenly grabbed by Natsu and pulled back into the team celebration.

Once the match was over, Miyako and Tai were waiting outside for them and Miyako ran right over to Ken, wrapping her arms around him in a hug and Daisuke found it strange. It didn’t hurt to see it as much as it did before. Instead, he found his gaze wandering over to Tai who gave him a warm smile and he felt his cheeks heat up. Wait a minute…did that mean he was…falling for Tai? He mentally laughed at himself; of course he wasn’t falling for Tai. His brain was just pleased to be getting such positive attention from the boy he looked up to so much, that was all.

“You guys did so great, I’m so proud of both of you,” said Miyako, detaching herself from Ken to look over at Daisuke too.

“I’m hungry,” whined Chibimon from in Tai’s arms, flopping right over to make himself look as pitiful as he could.

“Me too,” agreed Koromon, his ears drooping in an effort to copy Chibimon. Daisuke found it easy to believe that Chibimon was a bad influence on the others.

Tai laughed at them and bounced them in his arms to get them to look up as he said, “Why don’t we all go out for some food to celebrate, my treat.” As the two digimon celebrated noisily, he looked up to Ken and Miyako and down to Minomon and Poromon who were standing on the ground by Miyako’s feet and added, “You guys should all come too.”

“That’s really nice of you Tai,” replied Ken, reaching down to pick up Minomon, who waggled his arms happily.

Miyako pursed her lips and said, “But where would we go with the digimon?”

Daisuke turned back to see Tai frown, obviously not having thought of that and grinned, already having the solution to that problem. “I know just the place we can go.”

\--

“Hey Koizumi, are you open for business,” he called out as they walked closer to small noodle cart in the middle of the park. He could already sense the hesitation of the others behind him as he strode forward with Chibimon perched on his shoulder.

He could see that there was no-one sitting at the cart but after a moment the curtain at the back opened and Daisuke could see Koizumi emerge. He was an old man, who Daisuke knew was in his seventies after he’d asked a while back, with short silvery grey hair and a neatly trimmed moustache that stretched out as he smiled at Daisuke.

“Daisuke! It’s been a while, and I see you’ve brought friends this time?” he asked, stepping fully out of his cart to greet him. The old man smiled up at Chibimon and greeted him too, “How are things Chibimon?”

“Things are boring right now; Daisuke spends too much time at soccer practice,” he replied, jumping over to land on the older man’s shoulder.

He heard Miyako gasp from behind him and turned to see them all watching him incredulously. Of course they were surprised. Even with everything that had happened between the human world and the digital world, they still tried to keep their digimon a secret so they didn’t cause a fuss.

“It’s alright guys, he knows about the digimon,” he replied, but Miyako just frowned at him.

“Did you tell him?!” she asked and Daisuke suddenly felt like he was under a firing line.

“Not to worry young lady,” interrupted Koizumi as he turned back towards his cart and called out, “You should come and say hello.”

There was a slight clank of feet and Daisuke moved out of the way so the others could see as a small black set of plated armour walked out of the cart and bowed politely at them. Koizumi walked over to stand behind it, Chibimon still riding on his shoulder and placed a hand on its head, which stood at just above his hips. “This is PawnChessmon, my digimon partner”

“You have a digimon partner?” asked Tai, looking shocked. Daisuke didn’t blame him; when he first met Koizumi and PawnChessmon he’d been surprised too. Apart from Oikawa at the end, they’d only ever met other kids with digimon, never adults, and certainly never older people.

Koizumi nodded and pulled a small digivice out of his pocket; the same style as the older chosen, before he put it away again. “She appeared before me on the day I finally quit my old job and decided to really give my dream of running a ramen cart a try. It was like her appearance meant I was finally doing the right thing with my life”

“Wow,” replied Miyako quietly and Daisuke could see that all of them were still a little shocked.

“But anyway,” announced Koizumi suddenly, reaching up to ruffle Chibimon’s fur, “You didn’t come here to listen to an old man rambling on, you came here for some food, am I right?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry,” agreed Chibimon as he jumped off of his shoulder and started to dance around. “Food! Food!

Daisuke shook his head affectionately at his digimon before he looked up to the older man, “Yeah, that’s be great, thanks.”

“Please take a seat, order whatever you want and the digimon eat for free so don’t worry about that,” he explained with a kindly smile before he ducked back down under the cart’s curtain. PawnChessmon looked at them for a moment before she bowed slightly and followed Koizumi back in.

Daisuke looked back at the others with a grin and gestured for them to follow him as he made his way through the flaps lining the cart and took a seat right in the middle. The others quickly joined him; Ken and Miyako sitting one side with their digimon and Tai sitting the other side with Chibimon and Koromon sitting on the counter above the free seat. Daisuke grabbed the two menus and passed one to Ken and Miyako to share and the other he passed to Tai. He was happy to wait since this place had been his idea, but Tai must have read his mind because he rolled his eyes, leaned over and opened the menu between them so they could both look at it.

Daisuke glanced over the menu, ignoring his stomach and eventually decided on his usual ramen. He ordered it and Chibimon quickly complained that he wanted food too. Daisuke then asked for the digimon to all have Chibimon’s usual and they all seemed happy with that.

Tai ummed and ahhed for a moment before he ran a hand through his hair and said, “It all looks really good, what do you suggest Daisuke?”

Daisuke had been lost in his mind, changing the cart around in his head to how his dream cart would look and hadn’t expected the question, so Tai had to nudge him before he responded. His response was as articulate as ever “Huh..?”

Tai raised an eyebrow, his lips quirked in an amused smile as he asked, “What were you thinking about up there?”

Daisuke blushed, embarrassed to have been so easily caught out and looked away as he replied, “I was just designing my own ramen cart in my head.”

“Oh yeah, you want to run a ramen cart when you finish school, don’t you?” interrupted Miyako and Daisuke glanced over to see Ken smiling at him. He looked back at their menu which had been propped back up against the counter and nodded. When he was younger he used to be quite outspoken about his dream but so many people, including his teachers, and his parents, thought that it was a stupid dream that would just lead him to a life of poverty. They said there was no money in it. He didn’t care though; he still wanted to do it. He just wasn’t as loud about it anymore.

“That’s pretty cool, I’d never have the guts to do something like that,” said Tai, causing Daisuke to snap his gaze towards him. He had expected Tai to look like he was making fun of him but his gaze was entirely genuine and he felt himself going red beneath it.

“Thanks,” he muttered, glad when Koizumi started passing over bowls of ramen as it brought the attention away from him and the confusion going on in his head.

Why was he getting embarrassed? Surely it wasn’t unusual for friends to believe in each other so why did it feel almost…intimate. Being under Tai’s gaze made him feel weirdly vulnerable, and that wasn’t something he was used to feeling. He slurped up the ramen, wanting his brain to stop running around like a headless chicken. He glanced over to see that everyone was happily slurping away at their bowls, including the digimon who were making lots of appreciative noises. The sight calmed him down and he concentrated back on his food; the soft udon and the flavoursome broth that had a gentle kick to it. It didn’t stop the strange feeling in his stomach though or the dread that was closing in on his mind as the reality of the situation became clearer with each slurp.

He was getting a clearer picture in his brain now; all the wanting to please him and spend time with him, all of the blushing and the strange feelings inside. How could he not have realised it sooner? It wasn’t like he’d never experienced it before…it was just like when he fell for Ken.

Shit, he really did…have a crush on Tai.

At that thought, the noodle he was in the middle of slurping awkwardly hit the back of his throat and he began to cough. His eyes began to water and after some more loud coughing Tai slapped him on the back, leaving him able to breathe properly once more.

“Slow down there Daisuke, we’re not in any rush,” said Tai worriedly, his hand falling gently off of Daisuke’s upper back. Daisuke nodded his head furiously, not trusting his mouth to be sensible if he opened it and instead picked his chopsticks back up, pulling up another load of noodles before he gently blew on them.

Daisuke knew the others were watching him, probably weirded out by his sudden coughing fit and quiet spell combination, but he didn’t trust himself to even look at anyone else right now, let alone talk to them. He had a crush on Tai. His heart apparently didn’t think it was painful enough to have fallen in love with his best friend and had now gone ahead and gotten a thing for another close friend.

He went ahead and slurped the rest of his noodles, slowly realising that the silence that had been companionable before now seemed slightly strained and he knew it was all his fault. Perhaps no-one wanted to ask what was wrong in case it had something to do with present company, especially when both Ken and Tai were under different impressions on who he had a crush on and right now he didn’t have a clue what was a lie and what was true anymore.

“Hey Daisuke, you want to come round the back here and see all the equipment,” asked Koizumi suddenly. Daisuke looked up, having been pulled out of his inner ramblings, and realised his fists were clenched on the counter. Koizumi had obviously noticed and was giving him an out so he could clear his head for a moment.

He nodded quickly and stood up, and tried to sound as nonchalant as possible when he replied, “Yeah, that’d be great, thanks.”

He stood up, leaving the bowl of broth behind as he ducked out from the back of the cart. The wind hit his face as he moved round to where Koizumi was and he realised with a start that there were tears forming in his eyes. He grit his teeth in frustration and rubbed his face, doing his best to make himself presentable before he ducked down under the back curtain to stand next to Koizumi. Daisuke did his best not to look through the partition at the others who had begun to make polite conversation amongst themselves and tried to lose himself in Koizumi’s explanations that on any normal day would have had him leaping with joy. Instead he kept glancing up to look at Tai, then at Ken and then back at Tai again, as if the cursory glance could make his feelings clear.

It was only when PawnChessmon tugged his arm gently and gestured to the storage space that Koizumi was talking about that he realised he was completely tuning everything out. He frowned down at the floor, suddenly ashamed of his actions when Koizumi was going out of his way to be kind to him. Maybe he could come back and get a do-over at some point...after a big apology.

“Daisuke, I’m tired,” called Chibimon and Daisuke looked up to see him sprawled over the divider between the kitchen and the seating, looking thoroughly pot-bellied from all the food.

“I swear you only have three modes Chibimon,” he replied, shaking his head fondly at the pouting digimon.

“Yeah, awesome mode, kick butt mode and eating mode,” replied the small blue digimon as he waved his hand lazily up in the air.

“Close,” he replied, looking fondly down at his partner who was able to cheer him up with the smallest of effort, “Sleep mode, eat mode and pain in the butt mode.”

“Oh yeah?” replied Chibimon, sitting up and pointing an accusatory finger at him, “Well which one of those modes involves me getting stuffed in a bag with your stinky socks?”

Daisuke found himself grinning despite everything and replied, “Probably the sleep mode.”

“As if I could sleep with all the stink flying up my nose,” he argued, now standing up to perch on the divider so that he had more height.

“I already told you the other week, you don’t have a nose,” he replied, feeling all the uncertainty of everything else fly away as the regular back and forth banter with Chibimon helped bring him back to normal.

“Oh yeah well…” started Chibimon before he interrupted himself with a big yawn. Daisuke smiled gently at him and reached over to pick him up and hold him as he flopped from exhaustion. It had been a long day after all.

“I guess that’s the sign that we should get going if everyone’s finished eating,” he said, looking up to see that his friends were all nodding at him. Daisuke could see Poromon perched on Miyako’s head, slowing bobbing as if he would fall asleep at any minute.

He saw Tai rustle around in his bag for some money and knew it would be useless to argue that he could pay so he stood to the side so Koizumi could be paid for the food. Ken certainly tried to argue that he could pay for him and Miyako but Tai wouldn’t let him and Daisuke found himself watching on fondly as the two boys who were so important to him made a deal that Ken could pay next time.

As the others poked the back of the cart, Daisuke turned to Koizumi and smiled, “Thanks so much for the food, it was great as usual.”

Koizumi nodded, giving Chibimon’s fur a last ruffle, even as the digimon snoozed away in his arms and said, “Come back anytime Daisuke, I’m a really good listener if you ever want to chat.”

Daisuke’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he nodded and smiled once more, more grateful than he could explain, “Thank you so much, I’ll be back some time, I promise.”

He gave a small bow of his head to Koizumi before he ducked out of the curtain and tentatively joined his friends, who were standing and waiting for him. They walked together part of the way with Tai and Miyako making most of the idle chit chat before Ken and Miyako split from him and Tai to make their way back home. They walked in silence for a while, the sound of Chibimon and Koromon’s snoring the only sound around them before Tai finally spoke.

“I’m sorry, you got upset because I invited Ken and Miyako, didn’t you?” he asked, forcing Daisuke to finally look over and see the look of guilt etched in his face.

“No, of course not,” he replied quickly, not wanting Tai to blame himself for his own emotional confusion, “It wasn’t anything like that, honestly.”

Tai blinked in confusion and was silent for a moment before he asked, “Then what were you upset about?”

Daisuke felt himself freeze under Tai’s gaze, wondering what on earth he was supposed to say now. He’d just refuted the best answer he could have given. “I’m just…a bit confused at the moment,” he replied eventually, hoping that a half truth was better than a flat out lie.

“Confused about what?” asked Tai, sounding like he genuinely wanted to help and making Daisuke’s heart beat a little faster.

“It’s nothing,” he replied quickly, not liking the way that his voice went slightly higher in pitch from the panic.

“Oh…alright…” replied Tai and Daisuke glanced over to see that he didn’t look happy about the answer, “But I’m here if you want to talk…”

Daisuke almost couldn’t believe it…Tai wasn’t going to force the answer out of him? Was it possible that he felt guilty for doing it last time when it had been about something so personal? He felt a wave of gratitude flood through him and he nodded, turning back to watch the pavement ahead as he gave an embarrassed and muttered reply, “Thanks.”

\--

The next morning saw Daisuke up, dressed and completely ready by the time Tai arrived at his door. The reason being that he wasn’t sure he wanted Tai to see him first thing in the morning when he still felt confused about his feelings. Though when he opened the door to Tai that morning, he couldn’t deny the way his stomach fluttered happily when Tai complimented him on being up and ready for once.

They made their way to the school, and chatted about the sort of things they did every day but Daisuke found he kept walking closer to Tai than normal and spent a lot of effort on making sure he didn’t keep doing it. They got to school and dropped their digimon off in the computer room with Izzi before they made their way down to the changing rooms. That was where Daisuke saw Ken for the first time that morning and he felt himself calm down in his presence. He didn’t really know what that meant in the grand scheme of confusion but it was a nice change of pace from the self-consciousness he was feeling around Tai.

The practice didn’t get much better from there as he found himself getting easily distracted every time Tai crossed his vision. Towards the end it was starting to frustrate him; this was just what it was like when he first fell for Ken but somehow he had managed to push himself through. He gave a sigh and realised he was just going to have to do the same thing. He really had gone and fallen for Tai.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to run faster around the pitch, but, unfortunately for him, he ran right into a small hole in the pitch, his toes going down despite him being at speed and ended up tripping right over and sliding to a stop a few inches further forward. Tripping over didn’t alarm him. Not even tripping in front of two whole football teams alarmed him. What alarmed him was the angry throbbing in his ankle and he carefully sat up and placed a hand over it, wincing as he did so.

“Daisuke!” exclaimed Ken, who hadn’t been far away when he fell and quickly squatted down next to him, “What happened? Are you alright?”

“Just a trip, I’ll probably be fine in a minute,” he replied, hoping that that would be the case. He looked up at the rest of the pitch and saw that Tai was running towards them, with a look of concern on his face that made Daisuke’s stomach flip over.

“What happened?” he asked, a bit breathlessly, as he kneeled down next to him.

“It’s nothing,” he insisted, looking down at his ankle, which was currently covered by his hand, so that he didn’t have to meet Tai’s gaze, “I just tripped, I’m sure I’ll be fine in a minute.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit Daisuke,” he exclaimed as he reached over and pulled Daisuke’s hand away. Ken and Tai both simultaneously gave a hiss at the sight of it and even Daisuke was a bit surprised. His ankle looked a bit bruised and it was beginning to swell a little.

“That looks like a sprain,” said a voice from behind and Daisuke looked around to see Coach Haibara standing behind them. How was he able to sneak up so quietly? “You’d better go to the nurse and get that checked over.”

“Right,” he replied, wincing as he started to get up before suddenly he was swept up and found himself being held up in Tai’s arms. He gave a squeak of protest, his whole face heating up in embarrassment and squeaked out, “Put me down, I’ll be fine!”

“Yeah, you obviously looked like you were having no problem there,” replied Tai as he looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. Daisuke didn’t think it was possible for him to blush any more than he already had but he was sure he must have blushed more as he became hyperaware of how close Tai was to him right now. Hell, his arms were tucked under his knees and around his upper back in a princess lift and he was all too aware of the heat radiating from Tai’s chest by the way his shoulder was pressed against it.

“This is so embarrassing,” he squeaked, hiding his face in his hands as Tai and Ken chuckled at him.

“Take him to the nurses’ office and then come back for the rest of practice,” explained the coach and Daisuke remained with his hands covering his face, as if that could hide the mortification he felt right now. He was never going to hear the end of this from the team, let alone from his own brain.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like being this close to Tai, it was just that being this close felt too good; like all the nerves in his body were firing at once and he didn’t know how to react. He needed to keep control of himself; it was worse than with Ken because Ken hadn’t known about his sexuality until recently, whereas Tai was all too aware and he didn’t want him to suspect the worst and distance himself. He wasn’t sure he could handle that.

“Oh come on Daisuke, it’s not that embarrassing,” chuckled Tai from above him, the sound vibrating through Daisuke’s shoulder.

“The guys will never let me live it down,” he whined through his hands, before he took his hands away and looked up to Tai as he complained, “You could have helped me walk or at least given me a piggyback or something instead of…this.” He gestured to himself before looking away once more, not wanting to see Tai’s face when he responded.

“It would have taken too long,” he replied, and Daisuke could practically feel the grin aimed at the back of his head.

“You suck,” he mumbled, bringing the argument to a close as they quickly arrived at the nurses office. Tai walked right up to the door and used the hand holding Daisuke’s back to knock, effectively pulling Daisuke right against his chest. The move was so sudden that Daisuke’s nose was pressed right against Tai’s shirt and without even meaning to he got a nose-full of Tai’s scent. It was a mix of sweat and the laundry detergent he must have used at home but it made his heart beat faster and it made him want to curl up in Tai’s arms and never leave.

Daisuke was pulled out of his moment though when the door swung open and he was carried inside and placed on one of the beds. He was vaguely aware of them speaking but he found his gaze just wanted to stay on Tai and watch the way his muscles moved when he shifted his weight or the way his mouth formed around certain words.

Suddenly though there was twinge of pain and he felt a cool hand on his ankle as he looked over to see that the nurse was looking at him as she asked, “Is it painful?”

“A little bit” he replied, feeling strangely spaced out.

She nodded and her cool hands slid around his ankle, moving it gently so she could get a better look at it. She prodded a few more times, asking if it was painful before she eventually concluded, “I think you’re right, it doesn’t seem like it’s anything more than a sprained ankle so I’ll wrap it up and give you some painkillers to help take the swelling down”

Daisuke nodded and, not trusting himself to stare at Tai again, watched her as she retrieved the things she needed and began to wrap his ankle. Before long she was done and he was given some painkillers which he swallowed with a glass of water before she gave him some more advice on helping it heal faster.

“Now, let’s get you on your feet and see how much weight you can put on it, hmm?” she said, giving him a hand for him to take. He did so and slid his feet off the bed, feeling Tai hovering nearby just in case as he put his good foot down first. He followed with his bandaged foot and found it a little bit painful but not unbearable, which he told her.

She nodded and left him standing, weight shifted towards his good leg before she came back with a crutch and said, “You can use this for today just to help keep the weight off but by tomorrow you should be able to walk okay because it looks like a fairly mild sprain”

“How long before I can go back to soccer practice?” he asked, wary of taking a few days off of practice for any reason.

“No soccer, running or any kind of sporting activity for at least a week and after that you need to reintroduce yourself gradually.”

“But we have a game at nationals in a week,” he exclaimed, feeling the heavy weight of helplessness nestle between his shoulders, “I need to be in the game.”

The nurse’s usually kind face suddenly straightened with a look of utmost seriousness as she explained, “Well unless you want to potentially injure yourself more and miss all future matches then you’ll have to miss just the next one.”

He frowned, knowing that she was right but dreading going back to tell the rest of his team. He knew that the reserve players were good and Sugimura, who would take his place if he didn’t play would definitely do a good job but it just didn’t feel right, letting his team play without him.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Tai looking down at him, frowning in empathy. He took a deep breath, trying to ignore the feeling of Tai’s fingers on his shoulder and turned back to the nurse. “I understand.”

Her face softened back into a smile and she handed him the crutch which he took and positioned it under his arm. “If there are any problems, come straight back or go to a doctor, alright?” she said as a word of parting as he hobbled over to the door with Tai flanking him closely.

They both thanked her before they made their way out and back down the corridors, towards the pitch once more. He hobbled slowly, still trying to get used to the crutch and the way it worked, whilst simultaneously trying to deal with the guilt of not being able to play the next game and the dread of knowing how far he had really fallen for Tai. It really was too much to cope with after a night of broken sleep.

“Hey Daisuke…are you alright?” asked Tai as they approached the door to the pitch.

Daisuke paused as he reached the door, part of him wanting to turn around and scream at Tai that he absolutely wasn’t alright. He wanted to shout and tell him about how he’d gone and fallen for him and how it was messing with his head. He wanted to tell him that he was sick of having these feelings that he both couldn’t control and couldn’t contain. He wanted to cry about how he would do anything to be normal like everyone else and have crushes on girls and be able to play football without having to constantly tear his gaze away from the boy he liked. He was sick of it. He was sick of all of it.

He didn’t tell him all that though and simply replied, “No,” before he pushed the door open and walked back out onto the pitch to a chorus of teammates either checking he was okay or making fun of him for his damsel-like exit.

\--

“Let’s hang out after school today.”

Daisuke blinked dumbly across at Ken, his words pulling him out of his funk as he replied, “Huh? Really?”

Ken nodded, his face resolute as he replied, “I know there’s something wrong and it has something to do with Tai and I know you need to talk about it.”

“I don’t…” he started before Ken interrupted him.

“You’re terrible at keeping secrets Daisuke, especially about yourself; you wear your heart on your sleeve,” he replied, and Daisuke couldn’t help but give a hollow laugh at the irony of that statement. He had managed to somehow keep a lid on his feelings for Ken for years and now Ken was telling him that he was terrible at keeping secrets. He couldn’t even correct him without making it plain that he was keeping a secret. Ken frowned at his laugh but carried on, “You’ll feel better if you talk to someone about it and we’re best friends Daisuke…”

He trailed off for a moment, looking away guiltily before he added, “And I haven’t been there for you like I should have been because of all this new relationship stuff.” He paused for a moment, looking back over to Daisuke before he carried on, “But I want you to know that I want to be there for you from now on, like you always have been for me.”

Daisuke couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing; Ken had missed him and he wanted to spend time with him again. It was what he had wanted to hear for weeks and yet now…

His heart wasn’t pounding away and he wasn’t finding himself overjoyed at the prospect of spending time with him. He was happy to be spending time with him; there was no doubt about that. It just wasn’t the same intense feeling as it always used to be. Did that mean he didn’t love Ken anymore? Had he actually moved on because of his new feelings for Tai? Had something good actually come out of all of this pain and confusion?

“Talking would be good,” he muttered eventually and he watched as Ken smiled worriedly over at him, reaching over to place a hand on his shoulder.

“Then we’ll do it,” he replied before he removed his hand and asked, “Where do you want to hang out?”

Daisuke thought about it for a moment and knew there were a lot of fun places they could go but if they were going to be talking about Tai then he didn’t want to risk being overheard. “We can just hang out at mine, I can cook us up something and we can always play video games or something?”

Ken smiled at him as they reached the entrance to the junior school and replied, “That sounds like fun.”

\--

Daisuke spent most of the day staring out of the window and watching the cars on the road go past, which wasn’t really much different than any other day at school but today he wasn’t really watching the cars as much as he was staring into space as he thought about Tai and his newly realised feelings. He looked back into the classroom and looked over to Ken who was scribbling down notes from the blackboard in his notebook and smiled fondly. He still couldn’t quite believe that he was finally moving on after all of the years he’d been in love with Ken. He had never thought that it would take falling in love with Tai to do it.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and they were soon back over to the senior school for the afternoon practice, even though for him it consisted of sitting at the side with Minako and the senior club’s manager. He watched the two teams warm up and practice their skills but he found his gaze just stuck on Tai as he watched the way he kicked a ball or explained something to one of the younger members or even raised an arm to wipe the sweat off his head. He was sure someone must have noticed the way he stared but it was possible that everyone was just working too hard to give him a spare glance. In a way it frustrated him to not be able to be running around with them but he couldn’t deny that he was enjoying the chance to watch Tai. He didn’t like that he was enjoying it, but he definitely was.

At the end of the session, Tai came running over, finally having a chance to check up on him and asked, “How’s the ankle doing?”

He smiled; it felt like Tai had been avoiding him a little since he had been so blunt and uncooperative when Tai had asked what was wrong this morning. He couldn’t really blame him. “It’s not too bad,” he replied, “I’m still using the crutch but it doesn’t hurt as much.”

“That’s good” replied Tai, looking genuinely relieved as he ran a hand through his hair, “Do you think you’ll need a hand to get back up to your apartment when we walk home?”

Daisuke immediately shook his head, in an effort to dispel the blush that was sure to start rising on his cheeks as he replied, “Ken’s coming over tonight so I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, really? That’ll be nice,” he replied looking, to Daisuke’s eyes, like he was slightly disappointed. It was probably his feelings making him think that though.

“Yeah,” he replied quietly, looking away from his gaze as everyone went by, heading towards the changing rooms. Tai reached over and gently ruffled his hair, but didn’t say anything more before he headed after his team to the changing rooms. Daisuke watched him go, feeling slightly confused at the oddly melancholy energy that he had given off. Was something wrong with Tai, and he’d been too absorbed in his own issues to even realise?

When Ken met him outside the changing rooms after practice, he was ready to wait for Tai so they could at least walk part of the way together but Ken told him that Tai was staying to talk to the coach. He frowned at the prospect of leaving him behind but he had already told Tai what their plans were so he wouldn’t want them to wait for him just to walk home. They wandered over to the computer club room to pick up their digimon from Izzi who looked pleased to let them go from the mess everywhere. He was surprised not to see Miyako and Ken explained that she was covering one of her sister’s shifts at the store today so she had to go straight home after school.

On the way back, Ken insisted on carrying Daisuke’s awkward bags so that he would have an easier time with the crutch. Daisuke wanted to argue but he knew that it really did make a big difference so he’d let Ken have his way on this one occasion. They made idle talk on the way back, both knowing that the real conversation would come later when no-one was around to overhear them. Daisuke still found it enjoyable, like old times, with the way Chibimon would babble along and Ken would listen and then join in and talk about something with such enjoyment that anyone would think he started the conversation. He really had missed Ken over the last couple of weeks.

After a long climb up the stairs that made Daisuke hope the nurse was right about him being able to walk tomorrow, they arrived at the apartment and Daisuke opened the door, pausing as he entered at the sight of two extra pairs of shoes by the door. He gave a smile; his parents were back from their business trip. He glanced back to tell Ken but he had already noticed and gestured for Daisuke to go on ahead.

Daisuke kicked off the shoe on his good foot (the other one having been taken off earlier) and made his way into the flat, with Chibimon streaming ahead of him and darting into the main room.

“Oh hello Chibimon,” he heard his mother say just as he got round the doorframe to see his parents sitting down on the sofa, their bags surrounding them, suggesting they hadn’t been back long.

“Hey,” he greeted and saw his mother look up from Chibimon with a smile until she saw his leg.

“What did you do to yourself? Why didn’t you call us? Oh goodness Daisuke, we go away for a few weeks and you start pulling yourself apart,” she exclaimed, stopping only when his father put his hand gently on her shoulder.

“Honey, give him a chance to explain,” he said, before turning and giving Daisuke a wink. His father always had been the calmer out of the two, whilst his mother tended to jump to the worst conclusions.

She stopped talking but looked pointedly at him and he felt himself wither under her gaze as he hurried to explain, “I’ve only sprained my ankle lightly; the nurse said I should be fine in a week and it only happened this morning or I would have called you.” She raised an eyebrow unbelievingly at him and he weakly added, “Probably…”

He sensed Ken waiting around the corner for them to finish talking before he greeted them and he watched as his father squeezed her shoulder gently. His mother sighed and shook her head but said, “Alright, just be more careful Daisuke or you’ll give me a heart attack one day.”

He gave a chuckle and nodded before explaining, “Ken’s come over this evening, I hope that’s okay?”

“Of course, you know he’s welcome anytime,” she said, tickling Chibimon under the chin. Ken appeared from round the corner and greeted them before Daisuke took the chance for them to go off to his room. Chibimon seemed quite comfortable cuddling up to his mother so he left him out there whilst he, Ken and Minomon shut themselves in his bedroom where Ken dumped all the bags he had been carrying.

“Thanks for that Ken; those crutches are harder to use than I thought,” he said, letting himself fall onto the bed face first before he pushed his crutch off the end of the bed. He gave a sigh and rolled over, pushing himself up into a sitting position. This wasn’t going to be a fun conversation, because he still couldn’t tell Ken everything but he could certainly tell him everything to do with Tai and maybe Ken was right; maybe it would help him to get everything out in the open.

Ken sat down on the bed and Minomon bounced down to sit between them as Ken prompted, “So…what’s been going on with you lately then?”

Daisuke idly ran a hand through his hair and rested his finger momentarily on his goggles before he muttered, “I’m in so deep here Ken and I don’t know what to do…”

“You mean with your feelings for Tai?” he asked, waiting until Daisuke nodded before he said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean…anytime he’s around, I can’t concentrate and I keep looking at him and whenever he looks at me it’s like I forget how to act normally, and whenever he touches me…it’s like my body can’t even handle it…he’s going to work it out at this rate!” he explained, clenching his fists as they sat on his thighs. It really was how he felt and he wasn’t sure if it had ever been this bad back when he’d first fallen for Ken. Maybe it had been and he’d forgotten but he couldn’t remember now and he didn’t know how he was going to be able to keep everything bottled up.

“Would it be a bad thing if he did work it out? Maybe he feels the same way?” Daisuke looked up and gave Ken a withering look; how could he even suggest such a thing? “No really Daisuke, what makes you so sure he wouldn’t want to give it a try? He might be into guys as well as girls for all you know”

Daisuke looked up to Ken in confusion, wondering if he had developed some sort of sexuality radar since he had told him the truth. “How did you know he’s bisexual?”

Ken blinked and frowned before he asked, “Wait, are you telling me he definitely is bisexual?”

Daisuke nodded and Ken exclaimed, “So, what’s the problem then? He’ll definitely fall for you if he hasn’t already.”

“Seriously?” he replied with a pout, wondering when ken had become so optimistic. Maybe he’d been a bad influence on him. “Just because he likes guys does not mean he’ll like me, maybe I’m not his type or maybe he just sees me as a younger brother.” The idea made his chest pang but he knew it was the most likely scenario of everything so far.

“Then you’ll just have to force him to see you that way,” replied Ken, his face transforming into a grin, “How could he possibly resist?”

Daisuke felt his face flush and looked away from Ken, unable to believe the words coming out of his friend’s mouth. Only last week this probably would have made him so happy to hear but right now he just felt like he was being mollycoddled. There was just no way that Tai felt the same.

“I can’t tell him Ken…” he whispered, holding his head in his hands, “I just can’t…”

There was a long stretch of silence and Daisuke started to wonder if Ken was mad at him before Ken finally spoke up, “Daisuke, you are the bearer of the egg of courage; you’ve fought evil digimon and freed me from the darkness and despite the difficulty, you even managed to pass calculus last year”

Daisuke gave a snort at the unexpected joke and forced himself to sit up and look over to Ken who smiled and continued, “You can do anything you set your mind to, regardless of how difficult or challenging or scary because you know that the outcome is worth it, so all you need to ask yourself is this; is he worth it?”

Daisuke blinked, letting Ken’s words echo through his head and looked away. It wasn’t really that simple…was it…? After all, he’d kept his feelings secret from Ken for so long, and it wasn’t because Ken wasn’t worth it, because he certainly was. And yet…maybe if someone had told him those same words not long ago, he might have actually confessed to him.

Tai was definitely worth it. There wasn’t a shadow of doubt in his mind. He turned back to Ken, feeling like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

“I’m going to tell him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 was short so i thought i'd post both chapter 3 and 4 at once. Thank you so much to everyone who's commented and left kudos so far; it means a lot!


	5. Crashing

Daisuke felt his heart pounding nervously as he and Tai walked together to school. It was the only sound he could hear aside from their feet pounding on the pavement and the gentle snoring of Chibimon in his bag. He was going to tell him today, and realistically he knew that the sooner he confessed the better he would feel and yet there was still a small part of him that was begging him not to.

He didn’t have to use the crutch this morning as his ankle wasn’t in pain like it was yesterday but he knew that he still couldn’t afford to push it too much if he didn’t want to miss more than a match. That had been the gist of their conversation this morning before they had fallen into an awkward silence.

Daisuke knew he needed to say something. Right now, before he lost his nerve. He stopped walking and said, “Tai, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

Tai stopped and turned around, his eyes meeting Daisuke’s for a split second before his gaze was suddenly looking behind Daisuke, with his eyes wide open.

“Dylan…?” he asked and Daisuke spun around to see a boy about Tai’s age, wearing the senior high uniform. He had short blond hair and he was smiling nervously at Tai.

“Hey Tai, long time no see,” he replied, his slender finger twitching nervously at his side.

“You’re back from America?” asked Tai, moving past Daisuke to walk closer to the boy. Daisuke frowned as he watched Tai walk closer…America? It couldn’t possibly be…? His ex-boyfriend?

Daisuke didn’t want to believe it but he watched as Dylan reached out and gently pulled at a strand of his hair, “You’ve grown a bit since I last saw you.”

“Well it has been a year you know?” replied Tai and Daisuke watched as Tai’s finger twitched as though desperate to reach out and touch him. It made Daisuke’s stomach churn unpleasantly. This was the boy Tai loved; only a few weeks ago he had said he still missed him and now here he was.

“So…are you…?” ventured Tai, pausing as if asking would make the answer change.

“I’m back for at least the next year and if the deal with my dad’s company goes well then I could end up staying here even longer,” replied Dylan, his face softening into an even bigger smile as he looked fondly into Tai’s eyes.

Daisuke turned around so that he didn’t have to watch any more. He wasn’t sure his heart could take it. The boy Tai loved was back and it was clear from Tai’s reaction that he was pleased to see him. He clenched his fists, suddenly wishing he had never convinced himself that telling Tai about his feelings was the right idea. It had invited hope into his heart and now he was being forced to stand there and watch as Tai reunited with his old love.

“Daisuke, are you alright?” came Tai’s voice from behind and Daisuke turned back round to see Tai watching him with a frown. Of course he was frowning; he probably wanted to have his reunion in private.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I think I’ll just head on by myself and give you guys a chance to catch up,” he replied, giving what would undoubtedly be seen as an awkward smile, before he turned on his heels and made his way quickly up the road without giving Tai a chance to respond.

He gritted his teeth as he walked quickly up the pathway, wanting to get as far away as he possibly could. He could feel tears pricking at the corner of his eyes and wondered if he was doomed to be alone. Maybe he was doomed to always watch the person he loved get together with someone else. He kept his head right down as he got closer to the school, desperate to keep his turmoil secret from any passing students.

“Daisuke?”

Daisuke froze where he was; that had been Ken’s voice. He glanced up through teary eyes to see Miyako and Ken walking towards school. He saw their eyes widen at the look on his face and he quickly looked away, as if that could hide what they had already seen.

Before he could register what was going on, Ken had grabbed his arm and was tugging him away, across the road and through the bushes to a quiet spot where Ken forced him to sit down. He grabbed Daisuke’s face in his hands and forced him to look right into Ken’s eyes, even with the tears now trickling down his cheeks.

“What happened Daisuke? Did he say something to you?” he asked, surprising Daisuke with the fierceness of his tone and the frown on his face. Ken looked like he was ready to go and start a fight with whoever had caused Daisuke to cry and he suddenly realised how lucky he was to have a friend like Ken.

“It’s nothing; I never even got to confess,” he replied quickly, not wanting Ken to think the worst of Tai.

Daisuke watched Ken’s brows furrow before he asked, “Then why are you crying?”

Daisuke was silent for a moment, the tears continuing to trickle slowly down his face and onto Ken’s hands before he began to ramble, “His ex-boyfriend is back from America and the only reason they broke up in the first place was because he moved away and Tai told me only the other month that he still missed him and you should have seen his face when he first saw him. I can’t tell him anymore, not when I know how happy he’ll be when he gets back together with Dylan. I just can’t do that to him; I love him too much.”

With that the tears just got worse and he closed his eyes as a sob wracked its way through his body. He was sick of all this crying bullshit. He was sick of falling in love and getting his heart broken.

“Oh Daisuke…” whispered Ken, taking his hands off of his face and suddenly pulling Daisuke into a hug, pressing Daisuke’s face into his shoulder. He gave a small whine and put his arms around Ken too, clutching at the back of Ken’s shirt as he cried into his shoulder.

Daisuke didn’t know how long they stayed there, with him crying away but when he eventually stopped he really did feel much better. Like a weight had been lifted off, just by sharing his sorrow and being comforted. He pulled back and wiped an arm over his face before Ken offered him a handkerchief as he smiled kindly at him.

Daisuke took it and wiped his face and blew his nose before he frowned, knowing how blotchy his face must look right now. There was no way he could go to practice looking like he’d just cried; the guys would never stop making fun of him and Tai wouldn’t rest until he found out what was wrong.

“It’s alright,” said Ken, obviously having already worked out what Daisuke was thinking, “I’ll make up some kind of excuse for you.”

“Thanks…do you want me to take Minomon to the computer room for you?” he asked, wanting to do something to repay Ken for all his kindness

“If you're sure...” he replied and Daisuke nodded, knowing he must have made Ken late already and not wanting to make him any later. Ken opened his bag and passed over a sleepy Minomon before they stood up and he asked, “Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

He nodded; he knew that Izzi wouldn’t be arriving at school until a bit later so he would be able to just leave the digimon and disappear without anyone seeing him. He just hoped he would be able to get rid of the tell-tale crying signs on his face before classes started. “I’ll be alright Ken…thanks.”

Ken smiled at him and gave him a pat on the shoulder before he made his way back up the slope towards the school. Daisuke watched for a moment before looking down to Minomon and saying, “We’d better get you guys to the computer room.”

“Yeah, Izzi said we could play with Tentomon today,” replied Minomon, sounding excited and Daisuke couldn’t help but smile down at him.

He took his time getting there, going slowly to make sure no-one saw his face as he made his way into the school and passed by the nurse’s office. He left the crutch by the door before he made his way up the stairs and into the empty computer lab. He placed Minomon down gently before he unzipped his kit bag and pulled a still sleeping Chibimon out by one of his feet.

It was only when Daisuke blew gently on his face that Chibimon woke up and began squirming from his upside down hold, loudly complaining about digimon rights and something about how would Daisuke like to be woken up like that. Daisuke smiled gently at his partner as he put him down and Chibimon got up quickly, looking like he was about to argue some more until he saw Daisuke’s face.

“Daisuke? What happened?”

“It’s nothing,” he replied, not wanting to get upset again when he would have to go to class in…he looked up at the clock and swore…only half an hour. He had made Ken ridiculously late. He rubbed his face and gave a sigh. He didn’t know if he could deal with going to class today; he wouldn’t be able to get the image of Tai and Dylan looking at each other out of his head no matter how hard he tried.

He found himself staring listlessly at one of the computers before he got an idea. He would just spend the day in the digital world. He knew that the others would chastise him for it after what happened last time but this time he wouldn’t go to any mountains or cold places; he’d just go to a nice meadow and relax. He’d spend the day there and then come back just before the end of practice and go home like normal so that his parents wouldn’t suspect anything.

He went over and pressed the button on the computer to get it to boot up before he tucked his bags under the desk and sent a message to Ken, letting him know where he was disappearing to.

“Hey Minomon, can you let Izzi know that we’ve gone to the digital world when he gets here so that he knows why my bags are here” he asked, turning to the small digimon.

“We’re going to the digital world?” asked Chibimon, looking excited at the prospect, even though he still looked a bit worried.

Daisuke nodded his head at his partner before turning back to Minomon who replied, “Yeah, I can tell him.”

“Thanks Minomon,” he replied before he turned back to the computer that had booted up and found the program that he knew Izzi would have installed on the computer. A moment later he’d opened the digiport program and a minute later he and Chibimon were sucked in through the portal and spat out in a lush meadow in the digital world.

Daisuke took a deep breath of the clean air and flung himself down on the ground amidst the soft grass and colourful flowers, letting himself just be. Veemon flopped down next to him, and that was how Daisuke spent the majority of the day. He also wandered around, exploring the area and splashing in the stream with Veemon in an effort to free his mind of its thoughts. It worked for most of the day but he kept having moments where he would be thinking about something and it would lead right back to Tai and then he would see his meeting with Dylan all over again in his mind.

He didn’t want to feel jealous of this new boy, but knowing that he and Tai had a shared past and knowing that Tai still liked him made Daisuke wish the worst on him. He knew it was wrong and petty and not like him at all but he couldn’t deny the wish that he hadn’t shown up that morning. Then Daisuke could have gotten his confession out. But then what…? Maybe Tai still wouldn’t have accepted his confession, or he would have told Daisuke that he would think about it, only to distance himself.

Daisuke squatted down by the riverside, and covered his face, desperate not to cry again. He felt Veemon sit quietly beside him, having had everything explained to him earlier, and let the babbling sounds of the water and the distant calls of digimon soothe him.

\--

When Daisuke arrived back in the computer room at the end of the day, Izzi was waiting for him with a frown etched onto his face. Daisuke rubbed the back of his neck and smiled awkwardly at him, giving a, “Hey there,” in greeting.

“Don’t you hey there me! What do you think you were doing!” exclaimed Izzi loudly, prompting Daisuke to immediately get on his knees and apologise. Izzi seemed harmless but he was one of the few people that could genuinely scare him when he got angry.

“I’m sorry, I just needed to get away for a bit and clear my head,” he replied, his hands clasped against his knees and his head bowed down.

He listened as Izzi gave a loud sigh and looked up to see him shake his head, “I can’t stop you or anyone going to the digital world on your own and skipping school if that’s what you really want but you need to remember that it can be dangerous and if you get hurt or die, then think about what that would do to the rest of us, and your families.”

He nodded slowly, knowing that Izzi was right but Izzi didn’t understand just how much he needed to get away after this morning. He gave his obligatory apology anyway and Izzi just sighed again. “Anyway, I hope you feel better after giving me a heart attack.”

Chibimon gave a nervous giggle from next to him and Daisuke shot him a look in warning, not wanting to make Izzi angry again before he replied, “Yeah, I do, thanks.”

“Good, now clear out so I can actually get some work done for once,” he said, tossing his bags to him which Daisuke dove to catch before shooing him and Chibimon quickly out of the room and slamming the door behind them.

“He scares me,” admitted Chibimon and Daisuke laughed and reached down to pick Chibimon up as he adjusted the bags to sit on his shoulders before he admitted, “Me too.”

They made their way down the stairs, heading towards the entrance when suddenly Tai appeared from round the corner and spotted them. Daisuke froze as Tai’s face went from relief to anger in the span of less than a second and had to stop himself from retreating as Tai stomped over and demanded, “Where the hell were you? Ken said you were ill! Izzi said you went to the digital world! Do you know how worried I was?”

“S...Sorry Tai,” he replied, alarmed by the anger that Tai was showing. Why was he so angry?

“Explain yourself and start with this morning, why did you run off?” he demanded, his chocolate brown eyes turning sharp.

“Wha…I didn’t run off,” he replied, suddenly feeling angry, “That was your ex-boyfriend right? The one you only broke up with because it became long distance? I thought you might like some time alone with him so that you could get back together or something."

“Huh?” replied Tai, his anger suddenly gone and replaced with confusion, “You think I should get back together with him?”

“Obviously,” he replied, “He clearly still loves you; I could see it from the look in his eyes, so don’t lose your chance…you might not get another opportunity for a love like that.”

Tai blinked rapidly and looked away, as though he was actually considering what Daisuke was saying. Daisuke frowned, what on earth was he even considering? It was simple. “Go and get him already; don’t end up like me.”

Tai looked up, a sad look on his face as he listened to Daisuke’s words as though he could feel Daisuke’s pain radiating off him. Maybe he could; Daisuke wasn’t sure.

“Alright…if you think I should,” he replied and Daisuke nodded his head quickly. Tai looked away for a moment before looking back at Daisuke one more time, as though searching for something. Daisuke had no idea what it was he was looking for but after a moment he seemed to get whatever it was as he nodded and turned away from Daisuke, giving a quick, “See you later,” before he disappeared around a corner, leaving him in an empty corridor. He clenched his fists and bit his lip. He had done the right thing; he was sure of it.

\--

They got back together that evening. Daisuke could see the signs the next day as clear as anything, even if they weren’t being overt about it. He guessed Dylan still couldn’t risk his parents, or anyone, finding out, but the signs were clear to him. They stood a little bit closer together than most people would be comfortable with and they talked and whispered into each other’s ears. Daisuke tried not to watch too much though; it hurt, even though it had been his idea. Dylan had re-joined the soccer team too, so it was impossible to get away from the two of them.

He still couldn’t join in practice for the next few days but the nurse promised him that at the rate he’s going, he’d be fine to start exercising after another day or two and so should be fine for the match after this week’s one. So instead of training physically, he spent the sessions working out strategies with the two managers and the coach. It gave him something to pour himself into, to help block out everything else. He let it consume his life and before he knew it the next match had come and gone. He had sat on the bench with the reserves, yelling encouragement to the players and cheering loudly as Masaki scored the winning goal.

He knew Tai was watching the match too, from up in the stands but he didn’t turn to see him because he knew Dylan would be there. He hadn’t spoken to Tai very much since he had gotten back together with Dylan, not much more than greetings and small talk. Nothing like the conversations they had started to have. Maybe it was better this way though, maybe if he stopped speaking to him and phased him out of his life, he would get over his silly infatuation quickly. Maybe.

He went in to check on Coach Izumi during the week and Daisuke was glad to see him out of surgery and well on the way to recovery. He was in rehabilitation and the coach estimated that it wouldn’t be more than a few weeks until he was released and able to coach them again. He would be in a wheelchair but he insisted that he couldn’t leave his team any longer.

The next week was more practice, with Daisuke throwing all his energy into improving his skills so that he could do his best in the next match. His heart would still give a pang of pain whenever he looked over to Tai, even though it looked like they were trying to be a bit more discreet about their relationship than they had been so far. It annoyed him; if Tai was his boyfriend, he would shout it to the world, and damn the consequences. He did his best to avoid Tai, always making sure to arrive earlier or later than him in the mornings and changing quickly after sessions so Tai couldn’t catch him. He couldn’t really explain why he was trying to avoid Tai, apart from the ache in his chest. He knew it was his fault and he shouldn’t have been throwing his friendship with Tai down the toilet like he was but as usual, he was acting first and thinking later.

It wasn’t until just before their next match that Tai finally caught up with him, quickly grabbing his arm before he could walk out with the rest of the players onto the pitch.

Daisuke turned to him, ready to tell him off but stopped when he saw the slightly desperate look in Tai’s eyes as he leaned over the railings. They stood in silence for a few long moments as they stared into each other’s eyes before Daisuke prompted him, “Tai…?”

“I just wanted to say…good luck,” he replied, his hand still holding tightly onto his arm as he smiled down at Daisuke.

“Daisuke, you need to get on the field, they need to start the match,” came Minako’s voice from behind him and Tai quickly let go of his arm, giving him a quick smile before he turned around and retreated into the stands, heading towards Dylan.

Daisuke blinked in confusion as he turned around and made his way onto the field, towards his team, wondering what on earth that had been about. He didn’t have time or resources to spare to think about it right now though. He had a match to win.

Their match went relatively well at first, with Ken scoring the first goal, quickly followed by another from Banri. That was when the other team started to get wind of their general tactics though and made a quick countermove, giving them a goal. Daisuke signalled for a different approach but they still managed to score another goal against them, leaving them tied as the time ticked over half way.

It was shortly after that that things started to go wrong, clearly signalled by a loud yell from Ken after a particularly nasty tackle. Daisuke turned around, having been watching the ball and saw Ken sprawled on the ground, giving painful sounding groans. He felt his heart leap into his throat and ran straight towards Ken, only vaguely aware of a whistle being blown to stop the game.

He was by Ken’s side in seconds, his hand gently laying on Ken’s shoulder as he was curled up in a foetal position, clutching helplessly at his knee which Daisuke realised right away, was lying at a funny angle. “Ken?” he muttered, hating the feeling of helplessness that was flooding through him. Others were quickly at his side and he was vaguely aware of being told to give them some space as Ken was looked over briefly before he was carefully moved onto a stretcher.

Ken looked over to him and despite the pain etched on his face, he must have seen the look of desperation in Daisuke’s eyes because he reached out a hand as he was lifted up, which Daisuke quickly stepped forward to clutch in his own. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” he said, despite the sweat that was starting to build up on his brow, “Just go out there and win.”

Ken gave him a smile and Daisuke nodded, determination suddenly pouring through his veins. He wasn’t going to let Ken’s injury be the reason they lost; Ken would never forgive himself otherwise. He let go of Ken’s hand and stepped back to allow the others to carry him off before he turned back to his team and gave a clear signal which caused his team to grin knowingly at him. The signal had one simple meaning; the tactics are out the window, let’s just win this thing.

And win they certainly did, with Daisuke charging through their defence to get not just one or two, but three more goals. Nobody stood a chance when Daisuke had something important to fight for. When the whistle for the end of the match blew, he was swarmed by his team in celebration. He knew at that point that Ken would have already been taken to the hospital but when they eventually let him go, he turned to look at the stands, trying to find Tai and get his reaction.

But as hard as he looked, Tai wasn’t there at all. At some point in the game he had left.

Upset clouded his mind for only a moment before it turned into anger. So this was what their friendship had come to now? Confusing him right before a match, only to disappear part way through? How had he ever thought that this was love?

\--

Daisuke had visited the hospital right after the match, his adrenaline still thrumming in his veins, and was unsurprised to find Ken lying in a hospital bed with a nurse wrapping a cast that had been put on his leg. Miyako and Ken’s parents were standing by his bedside, having been watching the match as it happens.

Ken was the first to notice him come in, being the only one not to be looking at the cast on his leg and he smiled cautiously at him, his first question being, “So…?”

“Of course we won,” he replied with a thumbs up, leaving Ken’s face to light right up with a big smile. “So, what happened with you?”

“He fractured his tibia. Though thankfully not too bad so they didn’t have to do any surgery or anything,” Miyako replied for him, looking at Daisuke and missing the look that Ken gave at being spoken over. Daisuke gave a lopsided smile; Ken was probably getting frustrated that he wasn’t able to do anything and Daisuke was sure he didn’t appreciate having someone speak for him too.

“How long do they reckon you’ll be in a cast for?” he asked, looking directly at Ken to give him a chance to answer.

“They think it’ll be six to eight weeks,” he replied, looking upset at the fact. Daisuke couldn’t blame him; that meant Ken wouldn’t be able to play in any more of the matches in the nationals this year. “And on top of that, I’ll need to use either crutches of a wheelchair until I can put weight on my leg again,” he added, looking thoroughly put off at having to be so incapacitated.

“Don’t worry Ken, I’ll be around to help you with everything,” replied Miyako, looking far too pleased at the prospect.

“Oh Miyako, you are too good to our Ken,” praised Ken’s mother, smiling happily over, “I don’t have to worry when you’re with him.”

Miyako smiled and held his hand, oblivious to Ken’s mood. Daisuke couldn’t work it out; could she not see that he was upset at the circumstances or was she just choosing not to see it?

He stayed with them until he got discharged not long after and Ken gave him a smile that was loaded with frustration as he was sat in his wheelchair. Daisuke gave his best comforting smile, knowing there wasn’t a lot he could do to help and said, “Call if you need anything.”

Ken nodded, a sliver of gratitude warming the soft blue in his eyes before Miyako spoke again and ruined it, “Don’t worry Daisuke; I’ll look after him.”

“Right…” he replied, only hoping that she would sense how overbearing she was being before it started causing problems. He waved goodbye to them before he turned and made his way back towards home.

Daisuke tried not to find amusement in Ken and Miyako’s problems but it was nice to see that he wasn’t the only one having communication problems. On his walk over to the hospital, his anger had cooled significantly, reverting him back to feeling upset and confused. He knew he needed to talk to Tai and figure out what was going on at the moment that was messing up their friendship but he couldn’t lie…he was scared. His strength was meant to be courage. Heck, it was meant to be the thing that he had inherited from Tai and yet…he was terrified. At the moment their friendship was in a bad place and a talk might fix it but at the same time, a talk might ruin it beyond repair. He wasn’t sure he could bear the pain if he lost Tai forever. So, he would just leave things alone for the time being and hope that everything would work itself out without them having to talk about it.

\--

From then on Daisuke did everything in his power to avoid Tai and unlike before, it seemed like Tai was trying to avoid him too. He wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or upset. He settled on a mixture between the two and carried on as best as he could.

Although Ken still couldn’t play, he insisted on coming along to the training sessions and Daisuke knew that as time wore on he was getting more and more frustrated at not being able to do the things he could before. Even walking somewhere would often require someone to carry his bags for him. And stairs…they were not an easy task either, even though Ken had gotten the hang of using his crutches.

Miyako was always around too; far more than she had been before his injury and she was always trying to help him and make life easier for him by doing other things for him. The problem was that she didn’t seem to understand that this was the opposite of what he needed right now and if anything it was making him more frustrated.

Another week came and went and another match was won; though this one was a close one, with a hard won goal from Daisuke right at the end of the match being the only thing that edged them in the lead. And as if it was a gift for doing so well in the nationals so far, coach Izumi was released from hospital not long after their match and ready to take over their training once more.

Their last training session at the senior high school was tinged with melancholy, with all of them, even Masaki, having enjoyed their time there. They’d learned a lot and a lot of them had made good friends with the older team. Daisuke felt a sense of regret that things had gone the way they had with Tai but he hoped that this might help their friendship heal.

“Hey junior high team,” announced Tadaki, one of the more charismatic boys from the older team, as they all got changed after practice, “We’ve really enjoyed practicing with you all so as a big farewell we wanted to have a party this weekend for both our teams, would you all be up for that?”

There was a loud chorus of wooping and hollering that Daisuke took as agreement from the younger team and several from the older team, for whom this was probably their first time hearing about it. Daisuke’s gaze was drawn to Tai who was watching with a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Awesome. I’ll be hosting it and we’ve printed out a load of invites with the time and place on so none of you get lost. Grab one on the way out. It’ll be on Saturday night and there’ll be drinks and snacks and music so let’s have some fun!” he announced loudly before the changing rooms erupted into excited chatter. Daisuke smiled as he looked over to see both members of his own team and the older team, all looking excited to have a good time together.

He made sure to grab an extra invite for Ken on the way out, since he didn’t have to get changed like everyone else. He would have already headed home with Miyako, since it took him so long to actually get back. Although more often than not, he ended up going to Miyako’s and then his dad would pick him up on the way back from work.

Daisuke would send him a text once he got home to let him know. He could just as easily tell him tomorrow but he figured that Ken could use a bit of nice news to cheer him up. He smiled to himself as he walked out of the school and after picking Chibimon up from Izzi, quickly headed home.

He stared at the invite as he walked down the street, wondering if going was really a good idea. He and Tai hadn’t really had any sort of meaningful conversation for a while now and he didn’t want to nudge things in the wrong direction. But he knew he couldn’t get away with not going; his team would never let him, and neither would Ken when he heard about it. He was sure of that.

“Is that a party invitation?” asked Chibimon from his arms as he stared at the paper Daisuke was holding.

“Yeah.” Daisuke couldn’t help the proud grin smile, knowing that Chibimon had managed to read some of the words on the paper, despite his general inability to read. “It’s a big party that the older team are throwing to say goodbye since Coach Izumi is back from tomorrow.”

“Ooh that sounds fun, can I come too?” asked Chibimon, wiggling excitedly in his arms.

“I’m sorry Chibimon but I don’t think it’s a good idea for all the guys to see you,” he replied, knowing that it would be a very bad idea for Chibimon to tag along. Chibimon drooped unhappily in Daisuke’s arms and Daisuke decided, “Don’t worry Chibimon, we can throw a party for everyone sometime soon alright? Ken’s birthday’s not far away so we can use that to get everyone together. Does that sound good?”

“Yeah! With lots of food and I can beat Patamon at the fighting games!” he exclaimed happily. Daisuke smiled at his partner, letting him chatter on excitedly as they walked all the way back to their apartment. His parents were both still at work so he took the chance to grab his phone and call Ken. It rang a few times before there was a tired greeting at the other end.

“Hey Ken, are you alright?” he asked, sensing Ken’s stress just from his tone of voice, even though it had only been about 40 minutes since he’d seen him at practice.

“Yeah, I’m just working on my homework right now,” he replied, before Daisuke heard a voice at the other end of the phone and Ken’s reply of, “Yes please.”

There were footsteps and a door closing before Ken spoke again in a hushed whisper, “I can’t take this much more Daisuke.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, though he was pretty sure he had a good grasp of what was going on.

“She’s trying to do everything for me, everything!” he said, in a quiet frustrated way that only Ken seemed capable of. “It’s driving me crazy!”

“Have you tried talking to her?” he asked, knowing that Ken would never do that. He hated conflict.

“Not outright,” he replied honestly, giving a sigh before he explained, “I’ve been dropping subtle hints all over the place but she just won’t pick up on it.”

“But just telling her is totally out of the question?”

“Of course!” exclaimed Ken loudly, before he realised his volume had crept up and returned to whispering, “You know what she’s like; she’d probably get angry that I’m not appreciating her or something.”

Daisuke frowned; it seemed there was a lot more trouble in paradise than it seemed. He still didn’t understand why Ken didn’t just talk to her though; as much as she could be a pain in the arse, she cared about everyone and did her best for them. Ken was the problem here, though he certainly wasn’t going to tell Ken that. “Seriously Ken, just talk to her,” he pleaded.

“I can’t Daisuke,” he replied before he gave a big sigh and asked, “So, what did you call for anyway?”

Daisuke pursed his lips at Ken’s attempt to change the conversation but he knew that there was only so much he could do. “The senior team decided to throw us a little goodbye party on Saturday evening and I thought I’d let you know tonight.”

“Oh really? That’s pretty nice of them.” he replied, before his tone shifted slightly and he asked, “Are you going to be alright with it?”

Daisuke smiled into the phone, determined not to let himself be the party pooper as he replied, “I’ll be fine; there’ll be so many people there that I don’t have to talk to him if I don’t want to.”

“Seriously Daisuke, just talk to him,” said Ken, echoing what he’d told Ken a moment ago in a way that made it clear that Ken hadn’t appreciated his earlier suggestion.

Daisuke sighed, hating how Ken got when he was under serious stress. “Alright, I get it, I’ll stop suggesting that.”

It was silent for a few moments before Ken sighed and apologised, “I’m sorry Daisuke, that was wrong of me.”

“It’s alright,” he replied, not wanting Ken to add guilt to his list of stress right now, “We’re both dealing with crap right now, so let’s just agree to have fun at the party, sound good?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” replied Ken softly, sounding much happier than before.


	6. Alcoholic Intervention

“I can’t believe you thought I wasn’t going to have fun” giggled Daisuke as he did his terrible impression of dancing over the loud thumping of the music pouring through the room. Ken grinned at him from where he was sitting, before he took another sip of his drink. He was so much mellower than he had been all week, and Daisuke was glad, even if he suspected that the punch had been spiked with some sort of alcohol to do it.

He had spotted Tai and Dylan when he had first arrived but then he and Ken had gotten lost in the sea of people and a swirl of alcohol and any problems had been swiftly forgotten as they chatted away to other players and did varying degrees of successful dancing. Ken mostly hobbled from one seat to another so that he wasn’t leaning on his crutch too much, but even he seemed to be having fun.

The evening wore on, with Daisuke feeling more and more buzzed as he kept going back to the punch. He knew there was alcohol in it but he didn’t care so long as it made him forget his troubles so easily. Ken reached a certain point of mellow before he decided to stick to the non-spiked drinks and Daisuke didn’t argue, knowing Ken’s mother would probably have a heart attack if Ken came back, looking obviously drunk. Hell, his mom would definitely have a heart attack but he decided that that was a problem for future Daisuke. He was having too much fun to care.

As he was dancing there was a groan from the other side of the room and he glanced over to see several players surrounding a table, with a smirking Tai at one end and Masaki at the other end looking at a hand of cards in dismay.

“Dammit all! I bet you cheated,” he exclaimed, his face slightly flushed from the alcohol.

“Nah, you just suck at subtlety; I could tell from your face what you had in your hand,” explained Tai, the smug grin not leaving his face as Dylan laughed from next to him.

Daisuke wanted to go over there but…damn, his feet were already in motion. Alcohol really shortcut his already terrible action first, thought later mechanic. Within seconds he was next to Tai, who turned to look up at him, surprise clear in his expression.

“Let’s play a round,” he said, glancing down at the table to confirm that they were playing poker before he looked back to see Tai’s smirk in place once more.

“You’ll be even easier to read than Masaki,” he replied, taking a sip of his drink but without taking his eyes off Daisuke. Daisuke felt himself go hot under the collar at Tai’s gaze, even if he knew it was only the alcohol talking.

“W…We’ll see,” he replied, hating the fact that he had stuttered so easily. Tai raised an eyebrow and winked at him, and Daisuke felt like his face was burning as he turned away and replaced Masaki from his seat. Why was Tai so hot when he was drinking?

He knew he shouldn’t feel happy when nothing had changed but as he looked up, he couldn’t help but smile knowing that Tai’s gaze was directed entirely at him. He wanted Tai to look at him and only him forever.

He was distracted from his internal monologue as the cards were dealt and despite the bad hand, he still couldn’t help but grin down at them, just glad to be back in Tai’s world. Or maybe Tai was back in his world. Cards were flipped over and Daisuke kept raising the stakes, curious to see what Tai would do. Needless to say, when Daisuke went all in, Tai decided that Daisuke must have had a good hand because he folded.

The glee when he showed his worthless hand was worth it, even if Tai looked like he couldn’t believe that Daisuke had been able to fool him like that.

“But you wear your emotions on your sleeve, how were you able to lie like that?” asked Tai, his face looking thoroughly confused.

It made Daisuke laugh and he winked at the older boy and explained, “Because I was happier to be playing than I was annoyed at the cards I got.”

Tai pouted and Daisuke grinned away as he grabbed one of the chocolates they had been using as poker chips and took a bite.

“Daisuke! Have you seen Ken?”

Daisuke almost choked on his chocolate as he turned to see Miyako suddenly standing behind him. He blinked in confusion and couldn’t help but exclaim, “What the hell are you doing here?”

Miyako narrowed her eyes at him, obviously unimpressed with his tone and waited a moment for him to correct himself. When Daisuke made no move to correct himself she sighed, knowing she was outnumbered there and explained, “I’m here to pick up Ken.”

Daisuke didn’t know what the time was but he was sure by the number of people still here that it wasn’t time for anyone to go home. When he told Miyako as much, she merely replied, “I figured he would be tired since he normally goes to sleep so early.”

“One night isn’t going to make a difference,” he argued, suddenly hating how Miyako was treating him. If this was really how patronising she was being, he could understand why Ken was getting so stressed about it.

“Do you know where he is or not? I can always go and find him myself,” she replied, putting her hands on her hips, ignorant of the glances she was getting from the guys around.

“Alright, I’ll go get him for you,” he replied, his protective instincts suddenly kicking in as he glanced back to Tai to make sure he would keep an eye on her whilst he was gone. Tai must have read his concerns because he quickly nodded and began chatting with Miyako as he dived back through the crowds to where he had left Ken before he got distracted.

Ken was still sat on the chair, his crutch by his side as he happily watched his teammates dance wildly around. Daisuke appeared as Natsu did a particularly bad robot dance move and Ken and the others around all started laughing. He couldn’t help but feel guilty as he walked over to Ken, especially when ken looked up at him with a wide smile on his face, as if asking what was next.

“Uh…what were your plans for getting home tonight?” he asked, vaguely hoping that Miyako’s appearance had been arranged at an earlier point.

“Miyako was going to pick me up at 11,” he replied, before checking his watch and adding, “I’ve still got another hour, don’t worry.”

“Oh…uh…” replied Daisuke dumbly, before he realised that Miyako was still there and waiting amidst a sea of drunk and partially drunk guys, even if Tai was keeping an eye on her. He shook his head and spat it out, “Miyako’s here now to pick you up.”

Ken’s eyes widened for a moment in surprise before he grit his teeth together and let out a stressed sigh. “I was having fun,” he said, as he put his drink down and levered himself up, before grabbing his crutch.

“I’m sorry,” replied Daisuke, suddenly feeling responsible for the whole situation, even though it didn’t really have anything to do with him.

“It’s not your fault.” Ken gave him a nod and a strained smile as he gestured for Daisuke to lead the way. They ducked back through the crowd, quickly reappearing at the table, where Tai was now standing next to Miyako as they spoke.

Miyako stopped as she spotted Ken though, a smile lighting up her face. Daisuke stopped, letting Ken walk past him towards her.

“Why are you here so early?” asked Ken, all niceties gone, even if his tone seemed moderately polite. The alcohol was clearly still numbing down on his inhibitions.

Miyako blinked, apparently picking up on his meaning before she replied, “I figured you’d be tired.”

“I was having fun,” he replied, a sharp edge to his voice that could never be mistaken for anything but resentment. Miyako seemed to reel back slightly, clearly not having expected that reply.

“Guys…” began Daisuke, wanting to break off their argument before they had it out right in front of two football teams. On top of that, he actually felt a bit sorry for Miyako. She was doing what she thought was best and Ken wasn’t telling her otherwise so why wouldn’t she presume it was all fine.

“Let’s just go,” interrupted Ken before Daisuke could get out any more words and Miyako just nodded demurely and followed him through the sea of people. Daisuke watched them go, hoping that Ken wouldn’t make any rash decisions just because of the alcohol, like breaking up with her.

“Damn, that was cold,” commented Tai from next to him, as the other two disappeared out of the door, “especially for Ken.”

Daisuke pursed his lips; he knew Tai was right and he felt bad for Miyako but he felt the need to defend Ken anyway. “He’s just gotten really stressed with this broken leg and he can’t get himself to tell her that she’s being overbearing.

“It’s not her fault though…” he replied, which he found he could only agree with. Tai shook his head and grabbed Daisuke’s hand, bringing Daisuke’s mind snapping back to the present as he was dragged across the room to where everyone was dancing.

“Forget about that right now, let’s just dance,” announced Tai over the beating of the music, as he let go of Daisuke’s hand and began to move around to the beat. Daisuke giggled, the alcohol still buzzing through his system and began to dance too. Daisuke wasn’t a good dancer and by the look of it, neither was Tai, but they found themselves having a blast as they moved around, interspersing themselves with other team members dancing, refilling their drinks and giggling to themselves about nothing in particular before Daisuke found his co-ordination starting to disappear.

His feet didn’t move how he expected them to and he ended up flat on the floor, though thankfully his hands had partially broken his fall. Tai was by his side instantly, a worried look on his face that Daisuke couldn’t help but think didn’t belong on the face of a drunk person.

“You alright there?” he asked, putting a hand on Daisuke’s arm to help pull him up. He couldn’t work out why he found it hilarious but he ended up in fits of giggles as Tai dragged him gently over to the sofa to sit down. He let himself sink into the sofa and stopped giggling as he looked up to see Tai looking softly down at him. God, he loved Tai so much.

He opened his mouth, determined to finally tell him when Dylan appeared by his side and placed a hand gently on his shoulder to get his attention. He let his mouth fall closed as he heard Dylan say, “We should probably get going.”

Daisuke felt his mood immediately drop from the happy ecstasy of a moment ago, to a bitter jealousy as he frowned and purposely looked away. There was silence between the two for a moment, amidst the beating of the music before Dylan sighed and said, “Alright, he can come too, but you’re looking after him.”

Suddenly he felt Tai’s hand on his head and he turned to look at him, hating how the action was managing to leak away at some of the jealousy. “Come on Daisuke, come and stay at Dylan’s overnight; that’s what I’m doing.”

Daisue pouted, hating the image of Tai and Dylan together at their house. It brought back the petty feeling of before as he blurted out, “It’s fine, I’ll just go home, I wouldn’t want to interrupt.”

Tai raised an eyebrow, looking vaguely unimpressed as he replied, “Daisuke, you’re not interrupting anything and besides, your mom will kill you if she knows you got drunk.”

Ah crap. He’d forgotten about that, and he hated to admit it but Tai was right; his mom would absolutely kill him for drinking and she’d probably think the soccer team was a bad influence and force him to quit or something. He wouldn’t let that happen, even if he had to put up with Tai’s boyfriend to do it.

“Alright, fine,” he slurred in reply, attempting to fish his phone out of his pocket to let her know. Unfortunately his hands weren’t as coordinated and Tai ended up doing it all for him, even though his coordination wasn’t much better, before he dragged Daisuke onto his feet and led the way out of the house and into a waiting car.

Daisuke felt himself pout more as he felt the car pull away; Dylan was a rich kid, how had he managed to forget. This was one of the many reasons that Tai would never want him over Dylan. He turned away from the other two, resting his head so that he was staring out of the window, watching the scenery go by. Dammit, he loved Tai, why was the world conspiring against him to keep them apart.

Before long they arrived and Tai helped Daisuke up and out of the car, though he felt a bit steadier on his feet now that the alcohol was starting to burn out of his system. He tried not to let his jaw drop when he saw the size of the house in front of him; it looked like it was capable of housing a whole school, let alone a family.

Dylan led the way inside and they followed him down a few corridors before he opened a door and ushered them inside. Daisuke couldn’t help but let out an appreciative hum as he saw that it was less of a room and more of a suite.

“The bathroom is through there,” said Dylan, pointing to a door at the side, “And I’d appreciate it if you tried not to puke on anything, though I know accidents happen.”

Tai helped him in and sat him down on the bed, giving his hair a quick ruffle before he said, “Just call if you need anything.” With that he turned to walk back towards Dylan and Daisuke felt the anger as he realised that Tai was going off to another room with Dylan and leaving him here on his own.

Just before Tai walked out of the door, Daisuke shouted, “You’re an ass!”

Daisuke could barely believe the words that came out but he felt like he needed to say them. He felt slight pride as he saw Tai freeze in confusion before he turned back to him with a look of surprise on his face and said, “What the hell?”

“You heard me, you’re an ass!” he exclaimed, suddenly finding himself on his feet.

Tai just stared at him in confusion for a moment before Dylan sighed from next to him and put his hands up in the air. “I’ll leave you guys to it; you know where I am if you need me.”

With that, he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him before Tai frowned and shouted “Why the hell are you calling me an ass? I stopped you from going home drunk to your mother.”

“That’s got nothing to do with it!” he exclaimed, taking a step forward, feeling like a weight was lifting off his chest as he got the words out. He wished his voice wasn’t so wobbly though.

“Then what’s going…” He stopped and blinked for a moment before his face softened.

Daisuke lifted his hands hurriedly to his face in an effort to wipe the tears away but it was too late. They were already pouring out. “Y…you’re an ass” he sniffled, wishing, not for the first time, that life could be simple.

When he pulled his arms away from his face, realising it was a wasted effort, he found that Tai was now standing right in front of him. Tai grabbed his hand and pulled him back over to the bed, sitting him down before he took a seat next to him. Tai’s hand reached out to cup Daisuke’s cheek and turn it towards him, the worried look clear on his face as he asked, “Please, tell me what’s going on Daisuke.”

Daisuke blinked tearily at him for a moment, realising that Tai’s eyes were such a beautiful light shade of brown; it made him feel strangely vulnerable and yet excited at the same time.

Daisuke found himself slowly moving forward, closing the gap between them as if being pulled by some magnetic force that refused to be ignored. He paused his movements for a moment though as he realised that it wasn’t fair to just throw himself at Tai; he had a boyfriend after all. Within seconds though, he felt a breath tickle his nose and his eyes closed just as Tai’s lips tentatively met his own. It sent shivers up Daisuke’s spine as his lips tingled from the ghost of a touch.

All sane thoughts about why he shouldn’t do it flew out of his mind as he leaned forward and connected their lips once more, still tentative, still unsure, but definitely there.

Tai’s hand that had been cupping Daisuke’s face slid round by his ear, his thumb gently rubbing against his cheek. Daisuke began to kiss harder, his need to be closer not even close to being satisfied as he moved his hands up to run through Tai’s hair, using it to push Tai even further into him. Tai obviously had no qualms with this as his hand reached out and rested on Daisuke’s waist, matching, if not trying to outrun Daisuke’s quickening pace.

Daisuke was vaguely aware, somewhere in his alcohol ridden brain that they needed to stop and talk, but the press of Tai’s body against his own was intoxicating and as Tai’s tongue quickly found it’s home in Daisuke’s mouth, his brain turned to mush. Daisuke moaned into Tai’s mouth, before he quickly pulled back, suddenly embarrassed that he had made such a noise. Tai clearly wasn’t ready to stop anytime soon though as Daisuke found himself pushed down against the bed, with Tai quickly climbing on top of him to cage him in. Tai stared down at him for a moment, their gaze’s locked as if he was giving Daisuke a chance to speak and stop him. He couldn’t though. This moment felt so fragile, like it would break at the slightest word, so instead he leaned his head up and Tai gave a soft smile before he dove down and captured Daisuke’s lips in a kiss once more.

They kept going like that for a while until they had to part for breath but even then Tai wasn’t willing to stop for a moment as he began to pepper small kisses along Daisuke’s jaw line and towards his ear. It felt like his skin was on fire as Tai’s mouth explored him and he couldn’t help the gasp when Tai’s tongue licked teasingly around his ear, blushing when he heard Tai chuckle lightly.

He moved his hands up to run along Tai’s back, determined to do something to offset the older boy but as soon as he did, Tai quickly sat up and grabbed them, pinning them above Daisuke’s head with one hand. He leaned back down to Daisuke’s ear and gave it a quick lick, causing Daisuke to give an involuntary whimper before Tai whispered, “Wait your turn.”

The lust in Tai’s voice was palpable and it sent a shiver through his body. He opened his mouth, even though he didn’t know what to say in reply but Tai’s lips were suddenly on his again, silencing any thoughts in his head as Tai’s free hand ran along his side and down to where his shirt had rucked up slightly. Within seconds, Tai’s fingers were running teasingly along the bare skin of his stomach as though he had all the time in the world. Daisuke almost couldn’t take it; it felt like his nerves were exploding with too much pleasure and his brain felt like it was frying.

Tai’s lips eventually parted from his own, only to go back to kissing and licking his neck and across to his collar bone. His hands slowly made their way up towards his chest and Daisuke suddenly realised that this was all too much, too fast. Even though his body was trying to tell him that this was the most pleasurable thing he’d ever done.

“T…Tai…” he managed to get out between ragged breaths.

Tai’s fingers ghosted over his nipples and he gave a harsh gasp at the amazing sensation. Daisuke wished he would do that again…no…wait…they shouldn’t be doing this.

“Tai…wait…” he managed to get out, even as Tai gave his neck a gentle bite that made him whimper again. Why was everything that Tai was doing feel so good?

“Stop Tai…please” he said, knowing that if this kept going on he really would totally give himself over to the pleasure, regardless of what was right or wrong. It was clearly the alcohol that had made them go this far and it made Daisuke feel like he was taking advantage of Tai.

Tai seemed to sense Daisuke’s genuine plea and let go of Daisuke’s hands so he could push himself up to look at Daisuke. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his face flushed and his hair mussy from where Daisuke had run his hands through it.

The sight made Daisuke want to pull Tai back down and carry on but he forced himself to speak. “T…too much,” he explained, still feeling a little breathless, “We shouldn’t be doing this…”

Tai met his gaze, despite the disappointment clear in his eyes and gently lifted his hand away from Daisuke’s chest to rest on the bed again as he nodded and said, “You’re right…I’m sorry Daisuke.”

Daisuke shook his head; desperate to make it clear that he had enjoyed it and Tai smiled softly down at him for another moment before he clambered off of the bed. “I’ll be back in a few minutes” he said as he made his way towards the bathroom.

Daisuke had sat up when Tai got up but as soon as the door to the bathroom closed, he allowed himself to flop back on the bed and cover his still burning face with his hands. That had been like something out of a dream. He had never been happier in his life, even if he was the tool that Tai was using to cheat on Dylan.

Why was Tai doing all that to him though? That was the main question that floated in Daisuke’s mind now that he could think properly again. It had felt almost like Tai was worshipping him and he had been so sure that Tai would only ever see him as a little brother. Even with the alcohol, Tai surely wouldn’t have done something like that if he hadn’t had some level of feelings for Daisuke. Was it possible that they both felt the same way about each other? But, if that was the case, then why did Tai start going out with Dylan?

He gave a sigh; his brain couldn’t cope with all these thoughts in his head, especially not with all the alcohol still running through his veins. He closed his eyes and rolled onto his side, fighting away the sleepiness that seemed to descend on him all at once. As soon as Tai left the bathroom, they were going to talk about it. As soon as…as soon…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter was alright; i'm not very good at writing these kind of scenes but i hope you all enjoyed it :)  
> Just one last long chapter to wrap everything up :D  
> Thank you for all the comments/kudos so far!! It means so much!


	7. Truth

When Daisuke woke up, he was curled beneath the covers of a bed, with all his clothes, bar his shoes and his goggles, still on. His mouth felt fuzzy and his brain was pounding unhappily away in his skull, but that didn’t stop all the memories of last night rushing to him all at once. He gave a small squeak and curled himself into a tighter ball; everything felt so much more embarrassing without the alcohol. And on top of that, he’d fallen asleep before he could talk to Tai. Maybe it wasn’t too late though; maybe Tai was still in the room.

Daisuke wormed his way up so that he could peek out of the duvet and tried to ignore the crush of disappointment when he found that he was alone in the room. Tai must have put him in bed though, because he definitely couldn’t have gotten there on his own. He spied a glass of water and his goggles, sitting on the side and sat up, reaching out to snap the goggles back on his head, which left him feeling significantly more human. He grabbed the water and took a sip, glad to feel the headache starting to subside.

He gave a sigh and rubbed his forehead; he figured that Tai was probably in another room somewhere in the house, so he’d just have to get up and have a look around. He didn’t get up until his headache subsided a little more though. He relieved himself and tried to make himself look slightly more presentable, before he gave up and left the room, staring blankly left and right before he started walking, in a hope that this was the way they had walked last night.

He wasn’t sure how long he wandered around for, because every time he took a turn he seemed to only get more and more lost. Damn rich people and their giant houses.

“When my sister mentioned seeing a stranger walking around, I figured it must have been you,” said a voice from behind him. Daisuke turned to see Dylan standing at the end of the corridor and tried his best not to frown.

“Sorry, I got a bit lost,” he admitted, before immediately launching into his question, “Do you know where Tai is?”

Dylan walked up the corridor towards him and shook his head, “He left about an hour ago, saying he had something to do. I didn’t ask too much.”

“Oh…” he replied, trying to ignore the disappointment that Tai had just left without even telling him, especially considering it had been his idea for Daisuke to stay over in the first place. What did that mean in the grand scheme of what happened last night? Had it really just been the alcohol?

“I was going to come and check on you in a bit,” he continued, as he stepped closer, “How are you feeling this morning?”

Daisuke looked up to meet Dylan’s gaze and felt guilty as he saw the worried frown on his face. Dylan was concerned for him and yet he’d just kissed Tai yesterday like it was nothing. He was the worst.

“I’m alright,” he replied, looking back down at the ground as the guilt rushed through him, “Thanks for everything but I should really get going.”

“Oh, alright, I’d better lead you to the entrance then, huh?” said Dylan, and Daisuke just nodded, still not wanting to make eye contact with him as they began to walk back through the corridors. What was he doing? What was he hoping for? Did he really want to get Tai to break up with Dylan? Yes, he loved Tai but Dylan did too, so what right did he have to try and get between them?

After a few minutes they reached the entrance and Dylan asked, “Do you want a lift? I can get someone to drive you back if you want?”

Daisuke looked up at Dylan, surprised by his kindness and shook his head. The walk would do him some good, and he knew there was a station nearby anyway. It was a good thing he’d brought his wallet with him.

“Alright, well, be careful,” said Dylan, as he began to step back in the door.

“Wait,” he exclaimed, calling out with only the vague notion that he had to say something after how kind Dylan had been. Especially after the way he had acted last night. Dylan stopped and looked back, his head tilted slightly in questioning. “Um…I just wanted to say…I hope you and Tai are happy together.”

Dylan blinked at him for a moment, confusion evident on his face before he asked, “What…?”

Daisuke berated himself, remembering what Tai had said about his family being ultra-religious so of course he wasn’t going to admit it to a total stranger. He lowered his voice as he clarified, “It’s alright, Tai told me but you’re secret safe with me.”

It didn’t ease the look of confusion on Dylan’s face as he replied, “We’re not together.”

This time it was Daisuke’s turn to be thoroughly confused as he squeaked out, “You’re not?”

Dylan raised his eyebrows, looking thoroughly amused as he explained, “We used to be, and we did try again when I first came back but we’ve both changed a lot since then so it didn’t work out.”

“So…you’re not together anymore…?” he asked slowly, wanting to be sure.

Dylan shook his head with a smile and Daisuke couldn’t help the grin that bloomed on his face. That meant that last night he hadn’t just been used; he’d been wanted. Tai had wanted him. Tai must feel the same way; that was the only explanation.

His feet were in movement before he could even finish his thoughts and he waved a quick goodbye to Dylan as he ran out of the entrance and down the road, not willing to slow down for a second. He needed to find Tai right away and talk to him. He ran his tongue over his teeth and realised he should probably make a pit stop at home first and clean up. It wouldn’t be particularly romantic if they started kissing when he was still such a mess from last night.

His pit stop didn’t take too long, even with Chibimon begging to come with him because he was bored. Normally Daisuke wouldn’t have minded but he didn’t want to be slowed down by carrying him everywhere or be inadvertently interrupted when he finally got to talk to Tai. He would make it up to him later.

He tried calling Tai’s mobile but he couldn’t get an answer and it made him falter for a moment as he wondered if Tai was trying to avoid him. If he was trying to avoid him then maybe he didn’t really feel that way. But the image of Tai looking softly down at him and the memory of the feel of Tai’s lips on his neck made him shake his head. There was no way that Tai would do that if he didn’t feel the same. He would find Tai and tell him straight out that he loved him.

He realised the best place to start was Tai’s house and so he made his way quickly over, alternating between jogging and walking so that he didn’t appear too worn out when he arrived. He got there and stood nervously outside the door for a moment before he knocked loudly.

After a few seconds the door opened and Kari’s face appeared in the door crack, her brows furrowed together until she saw it was him and gave a forced smile. “Hey Daisuke, what’s up?”

He blinked, confused at her strange mood and asked, “Is Tai here?”

She shook her head, clutching at the door and replied, “He came back for a little this morning, grabbed Koromon and left.”

“Oh alright,” he replied. He would have felt disappointed but it was at that moment that he heard a quiet sob from inside the apartment; a female sob. “What’s going on?”

Kari glanced back inside for a moment as if she was wondering whether to tell him before she leaned forward and whispered, “Ken broke up with Miyako last night and Miyako is really upset.”

Daisuke’s eyes widened in surprise; he knew that Ken had been a little upset last night but he had never thought that Ken would honestly break up with her. Especially not when it was his fault for not being open and honest with her about everything. He frowned and nodded at Kari, “I’ll go and talk to him.”

Kari gave him a sad smile and thanked him before Daisuke went running off again. When he got downstairs he grabbed his phone and dialled Ken’s number. Surely Ken wouldn’t be avoiding him too.

Sure enough, Ken answered quickly, sounding slightly tired, “Hey Daisuke.”

“Hey Ken, I need to talk to you for a minute, where are you right now?” he asked, hopping impatiently from one foot to the other.

“I’m at the mall, getting some new cleats,” he replied, leaving Daisuke to calculate that he was about twenty minutes away. They only ever got their cleats from one specific shop.

“Alright, you mind waiting around there and I’ll meet you as soon as I can?” he asked, his feet already moving in the direction of the subway station in an effort to cut some time off his journey.

“Yeah, sure…” replied Ken, sounding confused before he asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain when I get there,” he replied, his breath already coming out in puffs as he ran down the street, “See you soon.”

\--

“Alright, so what’s up?” asked Ken as the two of them sat on the stone wall that lined the beach with Ken’s crutch leaning nearby. Daisuke had insisted that they find somewhere to sit and talk before he said anything. The last thing he wanted to do was have a private conversation in the middle of a busy mall, but thankfully the walkway they were sitting next to at the moment was mostly devoid of people.

“You broke up with Miyako,” he said, watching Ken’s face as his previous smile fell and he looked away guiltily.

Ken nodded at the ground, frustration evident in the way he held his shoulders as he replied, “I didn’t have a choice Daisuke, she was driving me crazy.”

“Only because of how she’s been since you broke your leg though, right?” he asked, hoping he could get Ken to realise that he had been hasty.

“Yeah,” he replied, giving a sigh before he added, “She’s just been so overbearing but I can’t be with her if this is what she’s like as soon as something’s gone wrong”

He felt the annoyance bubbling over as he listened to Ken’s weak explanations; how could he not see the route of the problem when he was so astute about other things? “Don’t be stupid,” he exclaimed, watching as Ken’s gaze snapped to him.

“What?” he asked weakly looking slightly hurt at Daisuke’s outburst.

Daisuke frowned at Ken; was he really going to have to spell it out for him. He pouted for a moment, quickly realising he really was going to have to before he said, “Did you ever try telling her that you were getting annoyed?”

Ken’s face flushed slightly and he looked away again as he replied, “I was making it pretty obvious that I wasn’t happy.”

“Yeah, but did you try actually communicating?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

Ken pursed his lips and replied, “No, but shouldn’t she be able to tell? We’re meant to be partners.”

Daisuke gave a small laugh and shook his head, “You keep your cards close to your chest Ken; no one can read your mind.”

They were silent for a few moments before Ken turned back to look at him, his gaze locking with Daisuke’s as he said, “You can.”

Daisuke felt his face heat up despite himself and knew that if he had never fallen for Tai then this conversation would end up being very different. He would confess to Ken without a doubt. Part of him still thought it was a good idea; he and Ken knew each other like the back of their own hands, they were in the same classes and the same football team. They liked all the same kind of things but still knew when the other needed time to themselves. They would be the perfect couple. But he didn’t love him anymore, not the way he loved Tai.

He smiled at Ken, his heart full of affection for his best friend as he replied, “Yeah, but I’m perfect; nobody can live up to that.”

That made Ken give a small snort of laughter and Daisuke congratulated himself as they sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before he asked, “Ken, do you love Miyako?”

“Of course,” replied Ken, sounding unsure for a moment before he repeated himself, sounding more confident this time, “Of course I love her.”

“She loves you too,” he explained, remembering the way Miyako would look at Ken, especially when he wasn’t looking back. It was plain as day that they were both crazy about each other. “She was doing all that stuff because she wanted to do what was best for you, and she thought that that was it because you hadn’t told her any different.”

“Yeah…you’re right,” he muttered eventually, “But I have trouble getting my feelings across…you know that…”

Daisuke smiled and gave Ken a hefty slap on the back. “That’s just something that you’ll have to work on when you go find her at Kari’s, get on your knees and beg her to take your sorry ass back.”

Ken’s eyes widened momentarily before his face broke out in a big smile and he nodded, “Thanks Daisuke, you’re the best.”

Daisuke grinned, giving him a thumbs up as he replied, “I know.”

Ken shook his head and continued, “No, really, you always tell me the truth, even if it’s not something I want to hear…I know you’d never lie to me and…I really love that about you.”

Ken finished with an embarrassed smile and Daisuke felt shame suddenly flood through him. He had lied to Ken…he’d lied to him for years in an effort to keep his feelings a secret. Then he’d lied to cover up his attempt to tell the truth when he’d told him that he was in love with Tai. It didn’t matter that the lie had ended up true in the end because it had been his intention to lie. But maybe it wasn’t too late to rectify his mistake.

“Actually…there is one thing I never told you,” he murmured, trying to keep meeting Ken’s now confused gaze, despite the way his brain was screaming at him to look away. “Uh…well…you remember when I first told you I had a crush on Tai?”

“Yeah…” replied Ken warily.

“Well…although it’s true now…uh…when I first told you, I was…sort of…lying,” he explained, forcing his mouth to keep working.

Ken frowned slightly, still looking confused “I don’t understand…are you saying you didn’t have a crush on Tai when you told me you did?”

Daisuke nodded and Ken’s frown deepened slightly as he said, “But I don’t get it…why did you tell me you had a crush on him when you didn’t?”

Daisuke finally allowed himself to look away as he explained “It was because…I wanted to tell you who I really had a crush on but I chickened out at the last minute and his was the first name that came to mind…” He stopped and took a deep breath before he turned back to Ken and gave an embarrassed smile.

Ken’s frown had softened but it was still there as he asked, “So…what are you trying to say?”

Daisuke took a deep breath, gathering more courage than he had ever had to use before as he replied, “Back then, before I had a crush on Tai, the person I was in love with was…you…Ken Ichijouji”

Ken’s eyebrows rose so high that they almost disappeared into his hairline and he muttered “Oh…well…that lie makes a lot more sense now.”

Daisuke nodded, hating the way he felt so vulnerable now that the truth was out there for Ken to see. He bowed his head slightly, looking away from Ken as he hurriedly added, “I’m sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable round me now but if it helps, I don’t feel that way anymore so you don’t have to worry.”

“Daisuke!” exclaimed Ken before he suddenly found a hand gripping his chin and forcing him to look back at Ken. He looked angry and for the briefest of moments he felt like Ken was going to hit him before he realised that Ken’s eyes seemed shiny, like he was about to cry. “Don’t ever say something like that. Don’t ever apologise for how you feel…or felt…it doesn’t matter either way. You are my best friend in the whole world Daisuke and I would never treat you any different. How many times do I have to say it?”

Daisuke couldn’t help the way his eyes misted up at Ken’s words. He wanted to believe them; he really did but he just couldn’t help but doubt them. It seemed from the way Ken’s eyes went a stormy grey blue that Ken understood the conclusion he had reached and he relaxed his grip on Daisuke’s chin.

Daisuke considered himself a Ken expert. They had been friends for many years. They did everything together and he took great pride in his ability to read Ken’s every move. But he would never have been able to guess Ken’s next move even if he’d been able to guess for years. Even as Ken leaned forward, Daisuke still never would have guessed his motive.

Ken kissed him.

It wasn’t a long one but it certainly was a bit more than a quick peck and he expected his heart to start beating fast and his stomach to feel like he had butterflies. But there was none of that. Only a vague thought that he would rather be kissing Tai at that moment.

Ken leaned back, his face beginning to turn red. He turned away from Daisuke and muttered, “Surely that proves it, right?”

Daisuke grinned at him, feeling strangely confident now that it was Ken who seemed unsure. “So do I start getting special treatment like that all the time?” he teased, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Daisuke!” exclaimed Ken, looking embarrassed and scandalised all at once. It was a funny look on him.

Daisuke laughed and gave Ken a light punch on the elbow, “Don’t worry; you’re all safe from me.” Ken opened his mouth as if to argue that he was safe anyway but Daisuke quickly corrected himself. “Tai is the only one I want to kiss”

Ken smiled warmly at him, despite the way his face was still a little flushed. “You should go and tell him.”

Daisuke nodded, feeling much more confident now that he had gotten one confession out of the way. “How about we both go and pour our hearts out to the ones we love and we can report back later?”

Ken laughed and nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

Daisuke leapt to his feet, barely able to cap his need to run right off as he helped Ken down and passed him his crutch. Ken’s eyes sparkled at him, the message in them clear; _go on already_.

Daisuke grinned his signature grin, not needing to be told twice as he ran off down the path, his feet moving faster than ever before.

\--

Daisuke was pretty sure that he knew where Tai was hiding out, considering he’d come back to the house specifically to grab Agumon. The only problem was trying to figure out where exactly he’d gone, which was why he was here.

“C’mon Izzi, please tell me” he begged once more, already down on his knees at the foot of Izzi’s chair, with Chibimon in the same pose next to him.

“I already told you, no” he said, not looking away from his computer screen, even as Tentomon buzzed nervously around his head.

“But why!” he exclaimed, his hands balling into fists at the unfairness of it all. If Izzi wouldn’t tell him then he’d have to go searching himself and the digital world was huge. He’d never be able to find him.

“Tai told me specifically that if anyone came looking for him not to tell them,” he explained, finally looking away from his computer to see Daisuke’s face. Izzi gave a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. “It’s not like I don’t want to tell you Daisuke, because there was obviously something up with him but I can’t break his trust like that.”

“Something was wrong?” he asked, suddenly feeling his stomach drop at that thought.

“He just seemed really out of it, like his mind was somewhere else.” Izzi looked back at his computer for a moment as though he was contemplating something before he shook his head; “But I’m sorry; I just can’t give you that information.”

Daisuke let his head drop down and did his best to repress a sigh as he replied, “Alright, I understand.” He truly did understand too. It didn’t stop the frustration clawing at his gut though at the prospect of aimlessly searching the digital world for someone who didn’t want to be found though. He just wanted to know why Tai was trying so hard to avoid him. Maybe Tai actually hadn’t enjoyed what they had done last night. Maybe he even felt disgusted and that was why he was avoiding him.

“Did you two have an argument or something?” asked Izzi, reminding Daisuke that he was still sitting there.

Daisuke hated the way his voice wobbled when he replied, “I don’t know…”

Izzi ran his hand through his hair again and gave a hum, his brain obviously working through something before he spoke. “He only said I couldn’t tell you where he went so if I just give you a vague hint then it’s not my fault if you’re smart enough to figure it out.”

Daisuke’s mouth hung open in surprise; not only was Izzi helping him but he swore that it was a small compliment in Izzi not considering him a complete moron. ”You’re going to help me?”

“Obviously,” replied Izzi, “Whatever is wrong with him is obviously to do with something you’ve done so you two need to sit down and have a talk.”

“They could stand up too,” added Chibimon helpfully

Daisuke ignored both Chibimon and the way Izzi had worded the question, just glad that Izzi was willing to help him find Tai, “Alright, what’s the clue?”

“It snows there,” replied Izzi, looking pointedly at him. Daisuke was only confused for a second before he realised where Izzi was talking about. Or at least, he hoped it was the place Izzi meant.

“So, where shall I set the digiport to?” asked Izzi after seeing Daisuke’s smile.

“The mountain pass that we escorted the Pagumon through” he replied, feeling his anxiety lift as he saw the smile on Izzi’s face that showed that he had worked it out correctly before the older boy turned back to his computer and tapped away at the keyboard.

Daisuke felt his uncertainty about confronting Tai returning. Knowing that Tai was trying to avoid him after last night felt like a punch to the stomach. It made him wonder whether going after him was really the right idea. Just as he felt his nerve start to vanish completely, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He checked it to see a text from Ken.

‘Miyako took me back! It’s all thanks to you. I hope to hear how things went with Tai soon.’

Daisuke smiled at the text, his resolve suddenly back in place now that he knew that Ken had finally found the courage to tell Miyako exactly what was in his heart. Now it was up to him to find his own heart’s courage and tell Tai the truth.

“The port’s all ready for you” said Izzi, turning back to him from the computer. Daisuke nodded and looked down to see that Chibimon looked just as determined as he did.

“Let’s go”

\--

“So…where in these mountains is he?” asked Veemon as they were walking along the mountain path.

“I don’t know for sure but I think he must be in that cave where he saved us from the avalanche,” he answered, his fast pace making his anticipation clear.

“But why would he go there if he’s avoiding you?” asked Veemon, “That wouldn’t make any sense”

Daisuke scratched the back of his neck, knowing that Veemon was right but he couldn’t think of anywhere else that Tai might go in this area. So in the end they kept walking and Daisuke felt his heart pumping loudly away in his chest as he saw the entrance to the cave. He broke into a run, unable to bear putting things off for another moment but when he reached the cave, his heart dropped. Not because Tai wasn’t there though; quite the opposite.

“What the hell are you doing here?” exclaimed Tai as he jumped to his feet; his muscles tense as though ready for an attack.

Daisuke frowned at Tai’s accusatory tone, hating the way it stung. “I wanted to talk to you,” he explained, willing Tai to want him to be here.

Tai stared at him for a few moments before he sighed and let his arms fall down to his sides. Instead of looking relaxed though, he just looked defeated. Before Daisuke could say anything to him, he looked away and muttered, “I’m sorry; last night was a mistake.”

Daisuke didn’t think it was possible to hear your own heart breaking and yet there it was; a painful shattering sound that echoed through his very core. Tai thought last night was a mistake, even though it had been the best night of Daisuke’s life.

“I never should have…I’m sorry Daisuke, please forgive me,” asked Tai, bowing his head to Daisuke. If he’d been looking though, he would have seen the way that instead of crying like part of him wanted to, Daisuke was getting angry.

“Stop talking!” shouted Daisuke and Tai’s head snapped up in surprise and he looked at him just in time for Daisuke to shout out, “I love you Tai.”

As soon as Daisuke shouted that, it felt like everything went quiet and he was sure he would have been able to hear a pin drop. Tai’s eyes widened and his mouth opened for a minute as if he was about to say something before he changed his mind and closed it again.

Daisuke didn’t say anything more though because he was determined to get some kind of answer from Tai. He still felt the anger in his veins but his heart was beating fast in anticipation too.

“I…thought you were in love with Ken,” he eventually replied, running a hand through his hair, as his gaze flickered back and forth from Daisuke’s own.

“I was but then I fell in love with you,” he replied, feeling his cheeks burn at the frank conversation they were finally having.

“I…No, I can’t do this,” began Tai before he shook his head and started moving to leave the cave. Daisuke went to block the way but he was beaten by Agumon who stood with his arms outstretched in front of him.“Agumon?”

“You’re not going anywhere Tai; I’ve listened to you pine for too long, so tell him the truth, right now!” shouted Agumon, his face a mask of frustration.

“Don’t butt in Agumon!” exclaimed Tai, “I won’t let myself hurt him.”

Daisuke felt confused as he listened to the two argue; it felt like he was missing some crucial information but he still felt wound up, not knowing how Tai felt one way or another until Agumon shouted back, “Why do you humans make everything so difficult? He loves you and you love him so what’s the big deal?”

An involuntary gasp left Daisuke’s mouth before he could stop it as he heard those words. Tai’s eyes darted back up from Agumon’s face to meet his, uncertainty in his gaze as Daisuke asked, “You love me?”

Tai pursed his lips and looked away, giving an awkward nod. Daisuke frowned though; why did Tai seem so upset about the whole thing? Wasn’t this the part where they celebrated and kissed and lived happily ever after?

Daisuke took a step forward and Tai simultaneously took a step back, leaving Daisuke feeling horribly rejected. “What’s going on Tai? I don’t understand…”

 “I’m a monster and I don’t deserve you,” he replied, still refusing to meet his gaze. This just left Daisuke feeling even more confused than before.

“What are you talking about Tai?” he exclaimed, “You’re nothing like a monster.”

“Yes I am,” he mumbled, his fists clenched at his sides “I took advantage of you and did unforgivable things.”

“Wha…unforgivable?” he exclaimed before blushing heavily, “I enjoyed it though.”

“If you hadn’t told me to stop then I don’t know how far I would have gone and that’s not right; you’re only 15,” said Tai before he growled and furiously scratched at his hair, “God! I’m the worst!”

Daisuke couldn’t believe Tai was taking it so hard. This was what had been wrong with him the whole time? “You’ve not been 17 long,” he replied angrily, not backing down when Tai gave him a pointed look, “and on top of that, we’d both been drinking so it wasn’t your fault.”

Tai looked away guiltily and sighed before he spoke up again, “If you’d gotten hurt it would have been my fault.”

Daisuke gave a sigh and ran a hand through his hair before his fingers caught on his goggles and he let them rest there for a moment, desperately thinking of a way to get Tai to see things from his perspective. His gaze snapped up and he took a step toward Tai before he said as matter-o-factly as he could, “Knowing that you were avoiding me for fear of hurting me, would hurt me more than anything else ever could.”

Tai looked back over to Daisuke, his gaze lingering as if he wasn’t sure whether he could believe that.

“Oh for god’s sake,” he heard Veemon curse from behind him before something rammed into the back of his legs, sending him tumbling forwards to the ground. Before he could even do more than shut his eyes though, his face hit something soft and he found himself enveloped in strong arms. Tai’s arms.

They stood there and when Tai made it clear that he wasn’t going to push him away, Daisuke circled his arms tight around him and took a deep breath, breathing in Tai’s scent. He felt Tai’s breath by his ear as he finally spoke, his voice quiet and soft, “What am I going to do with you…”

“Love me,” replied Daisuke, pulling his arms even tighter.

He relaxed when Tai chuckled into his ear, allowing himself to melt into Tai’s embrace as the older boy replied, “I already do.”

Daisuke didn’t know how long they stood like that before Tai pulled back and looked down at him softly, his eyes filled with so much obvious affection that Daisuke wondered how he hadn’t seen it before.

“Daisuke, I love you but I meant what I said about last night being a mistake,” said Tai, a small frown creasing his forehead, “If you really want to be with me then you’ll have to be content with waiting to do anything until you’re 18”

“What? 18?” Daisuke balked, before he clarified, “Wait...what do you mean by everything?”

“I mean anything sexual,” he explained, looking deadly serious enough that Daisuke didn’t question if he was joking.

“But why?” he asked, feeling a little hurt in the knowledge that Tai didn’t want to do things with him.

“I meant what I said about not wanting to hurt you, and I think that because of the age gap, we should take things slowly,” replied Tai, before he smiled and ran his hands down Daisuke’s arms to allow their finger to knit together, “We’ve got all the time in the world Daisuke.”

Daisuke could barely think at the feel of Tai’s fingers against his and nodded, his face no doubt a deep red. Maybe Tai was right; maybe they should take things slowly.

Tai leaned forward slowly, as if giving Daisuke plenty of time to back out if he wanted to, but there was nothing Daisuke wanted more at the moment. He leaned forward to press his lips against Tai’s in a small kiss. It wasn’t as needy as the kisses last night, but it still sent a tingling sensation down his body and all the way to his toes. That was when he knew that all of the pining, doubt and pain had been worth it because this moment was where he had been heading to all along. When they parted, Daisuke smiled up at Tai, unable to hide the happiness that was blooming in his heart at the prospect of loving someone and being loved in return. It was a new feeling but he hoped it would never fade.

All he’d needed to do was find the courage of his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone has enjoyed this; it was a long time coming and i feel like i can finally put this story to rest after 2 years. This rare pair means alot to me and this story has taken so much of my time and energy in re-writes that i know i'll write more for them in the future. I'm not sure i'll ever write anything quite like this again though lol.  
> I hope the ending is satisfying; i brought up Tai's guilt over Daisuke's age because i've seen some fanfics that paint Tai as some pervert who bulldozes through Daisuke's uncertainty and i don't think Tai would ever, ever do that. I think he would be all too aware of the age gap no matter how he felt.  
> I would love any feedback but if not, thank you for reading anyway. I love you all!


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